Zoom link:  https://mit.zoom.us/my/heldmeeting

Speaker: Prof. Stephen Grossberg

Title: A conversation with Professor Emeritus Stephen Grossberg

About the speaker: Professor Steve Grossberg is known for his foundational work in modeling brain function. He is Wang professor of cognitive and neural systems at Boston University. Prof. Grossberg’s work bridges neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence, offering biologically plausible models that have influenced machine learning and neural networks. His interdisciplinary approach and theoretical innovations have helped shape modern neuroscience, making him one of the most influential theorists in the study of brain function.

Prof. Grossberg received his undergraduate degree in 1961 from Dartmouth College, the institution's first student to jointly major in mathematics and psychology. He pursued his doctoral research at Rockefeller Institute under the guidance of Prof. Gian-Carlo Rota. He subsequently accepted a faculty position at MIT and then, in 1975, at Boston University, where he founded the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems.​

About the SilverMinds series: All of us have seen further because of the privilege of “standing on the shoulders of giants.” SilverMinds is a seminar series featuring some of these giants – distinguished scientists who have made profound contributions to knowledge, and are now retired in their 80s or 90s. The featured guests have an opportunity to engage with audience members on wide-ranging issues including their perspectives on how scientific fields have evolved, reasons for hope and caution, and broader lessons they have derived from their personal journeys through the landscape of science, the challenges and decisions that shaped their paths and might be just as relevant today as they were decades ago. With these seminars, we hope to come together as a community to learn once again from, and celebrate, the individuals who have so profoundly shaped science and our lives in it.

This seminar series is hosted by the Sinha Lab in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and supported by a grant from the MIT School of Science. Research Scientist Dr. Michal Fux, serves as the lead organizer. She can be reached at fuxm@mit.edu