August - Sarah Robins
Please join me in congratulating Sarah Robins, associate professor of philosophy, on being awarded over $200,000 for her project Building a Conceptual Ecology of the Engram through the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES).
Building a Conceptual Ecology of the Engram combines biology with the history and philosophy of science to better understand gene concepts. It creates a comparable framework of understanding for the engram of how neuroscientists working at different times, with different tools, research questions, and new populations think about this basic unit of memory. The project, which includes updated trainings in opto-genetics and other new intervention technologies, shows the critical intersection between philosophy and how the mind works, while also promoting science literacy.
NSF’s SES focuses on evidence and insight to create advances in understanding how people live, allowing for improvements in quality of life, institutional effectiveness, and economic prosperity.
Congratulations, Professor Robins!
David A. Reingold
Senior Vice President for Policy Planning
Justin S. Morrill Dean of Liberal Arts
Professor of Sociology