* Ranulfo Romo Institute of Cellular Physiology National Autonomous Unversity of Mexico (UNAM) www.ifc.unam.mx/researchers/ranulfo-romo/en

PLENARY TALK TITLE: CONVERSION OF SENSORY SIGNALS INTO PERCEPTUAL DECISIONS

BIOSKETCH: Dr. Romo is Professor of Neuroscience at the Institute of Cellular Physiology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He received his M.D. degree from the UNAM and a D.Sc. in the field of Neuroscience from the University of Paris. His postdoctoral work was done with Wolfram Schultz at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and with Vernon Mountcastle at the Johns Hopkins University. He received the 1990 Demuth Prize in Neuroscience from the Swiss Medical Research Foundation, the 2000 National Prize in Sciences and Arts from the Mexican government, the 2002 Prize in Basic Medical Sciences, and the 2009 Ranwell Caputto prize from the Argentinean Society of Neurosciences. He has delivered the 2005 Presidential Lecture at the Society of Neuroscience Congress; the 2005 Brooks Lecture at Harvard Medical School; the 2006 Teuber Lecture at MIT; the 2007 Harman Lecture at Cajal Club; and in 2009 the Ragnar Lecture at the Karolinska Institute. Dr. Romo is editor-in-chief of Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience and a member of the editorial board of Progress in Neurobiology.

* Miguel A.L. Nicolelis Duke University Medical Center www.nicolelislab.net

PLENARY TALK TITLE: TOWARDS A WHOLE BODY NEUROPROSTHETICS

BIOSKETCH: Dr. Nicolelis is Professor of Neurobiology, Biomedical Engineering and Psychological and Brain Sciences, and the Co-Director of the Center for Neuroengineering at Duke University Medical Center. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Sao Paulo Medical School in 1984, and the Ph.D. at the Institute of Biomedical Science, University of Sao Paulo in 1988/89. Dr. Nicolelis has been the recipient of many awards and recognitions, including the 2010 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, Order of Rio Branco, awarded by the President of Brazil and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, a full member of the Brazilian Academy of Science, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and a member of the Foreign Member of the French Academy of Science. Dr. Nicolelis will be a speaker at the 2011 Nobel Symposium “3M: Mind, Machines and Molecules,” in Stockholm, Sweden.

* Marc H. Schieber School of Medicine and Dentistry University of Rochester www.urmc.rochester.edu/labs/Schieber-Lab

PLENARY TALK TITLE: CHANGING THE CIRCUITS THAT CONTROL THE FINGERS

BIOSKETCH: Marc H. Schieber received his A.B. in 1974, and M.D. and Ph.D. in 1982, all from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. He currently is Professor of Neurology and of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Rochester, and Attending Neurologist on the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit at Unity Health, Rochester, NY. For the past 25 years, his research has focused on how the nervous system, particularly the primary motor cortex, controls muscles to perform dexterous, individuated movements of the hand and fingers. Dr. Schieber is a member of the Society for Neural Control of Movement and the Society for Neuroscience. He has received an NINDS Javits Investigator Merit Award and has served as Chair of the NIH Sensorimotor Integration Study Section.