Mind Space

Welcome to Mind Space

Welcome to the first edition of Mind Space, the newsletter of the Centre for the Mind.

The Centre for the Mind was established with the following key objectives:

• to act as a catalyst for interdisciplinary scientific research into the mind to abolish disciplinary boundaries and explore new paths into research into the mind;

• to promote excitement about the power of ideas in the Australian community as a whole; and

• to enrich Australia through encouraging a more intellectual tradition in this country.

Golden Moments

Many of you will be familiar with the Centres achievements since its inception in 1997. The Centre was launched at the historic Museum of Sydney, the birthplace of the nation on 4August, 1997, receiving powerful endorsement from the Prime Minister of Australia. Renowned author and neurobiologist, Dr Oliver Sacks, delivered the Foundation Lecture "Creativity and the Mind" at the gala public opening at the Australian Academy of Science where he received the Foundation Medal from the President of the Academy, Sir Gustav Nossal.

1998 started off on a fantastic note with the Bulletin/Newsweek proclaiming the Director of the Centre, Professor Snyder, one of Australias 10 most creative minds. We received strong public endorsement from the Prime Minister and were visited by leading international scientists (p. 4). We are excited to announce News Limited are our first Foundation Sponsor (p.2), and we are soon to launch a column in The Australian. We gave several public lectures, including an address at Australia Unlimited (p. 5) and the inaugural Edwin Flack lecture with the Australian Olympic Committee (p. 5), where we announced our bold new initiative to expand the Olympic Movement (more on this later). And provocative new research from the Centre recently presented at the Brain, Conscious Experience and Human Nature workshop in San Diego suggests that all of us have the ability to perform astonishing feats of arithmetic but this facility is not normally easy to access (a full update next issue).

We hope this newsletter will be the first step towards keeping you up-to-date with all the Centres activities. Any comments, queries or suggestions you may have are warmly welcomed, so please feel free to contact someone at the Centre to discuss any issues of interest to you.

Regards,

Kirsty

Kirsty GALLOWAY McLEAN

Executive Manager, Centre for the Mind

INSIDE THIS ISSUE
1   Welcome to Mind Space	3   Creative Mind School Competition
2   Sydney University Merger	4   Daniel Dennett and the Creation of Creativity
2   Centre Programs	5   A Word from the Director
2   Research Update	5   Australia Unlimited : Dream of Australia
2   Foundation Sponsor	5   Edwin Flack lecture: Mind, Body, Performance
3   New Centre Advisers	6   Upcoming Events