Each year, UE's programs in the Cognitive and Neural Sciences jointly sponsor a lecture series on topics of mutual interest. Named in honor of Francis Crick, for his intellectual ambition and cross-disciplinary curiosity, these lectures serve to make the study of the mind and brain accessible to UE and the broader Evansville community. Lectures are free and open to the public.

To learn more about Francis Crick, see his biography at the Nobel Foundation.

Past Events

Crick Lecture Series

Friday, September 20, 2019, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Is There a Virtue of Honesty? Personality Psychology Meets Virtue Ethics

Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Dr. Stephen Crowley, Boise State

Crick Lecture Series - Rat Model of Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery and its Influences on Taste-guided Behavior

Thursday, September 20, 2018, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Clare Mathes, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Baldwin Wallace University
PhD from University of Florida
https://www.bw.edu/academics/bios/mathes-clare

Crick Lecture Series - Empiricism without Magic: Transformational Abstraction in Deep-Learning Neural Networks

Friday, April 13, 2018, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Dr. Cameron Buckner

University of Houston

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few years, you have heard about the incredible recent achievements of deep neural networks. These artificial intelligence methods seem to achieve "superhuman" performance on new domains weekly, from beating grandmasters at the ancient Chinese game of Go to driverless navigation to automated image classification to winning at video games, to name just a few. However, it has proven difficult to explain how or why deep neural networks perform so well.

In philosophy of mind, empiricists like Locke and Hume argued that complex cognition is based on information derived from sensory experience, often appealing to a faculty of abstraction. Rationalists have frequently complained, however, that they never adequately explained how this faculty of abstraction actually works, charging that abstraction is just empiricist "magic".

In this talk, I tie these two problems together, to the mutual benefit of both disciplines. I argue that the engineering tweaks that distinguish deep networks from their shallower forebears explains how they (and the brain) implement a form of hierarchical processing that I call “transformational abstraction”. Transformational abstraction iteratively converts sensory-based representations of category exemplars into more generic formats that are increasingly tolerant to “nuisance variation”, one of the main systematic challenges that cognition must overcome to reliably succeed in the natural world. I here illustrate the power of transformational abstraction through a series of examples, including classic philosophical conundrums from Locke and Hume as well as more contemporary applications like Go strategy and abstract arts."

Crick Lecture Series - Old drugs, new tricks: Exploiting brain-gut interactions in treating mental health disorders

Monday, November 6, 2017, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Devon L. Graham, Ph.D.
Florida State University College of Medicine
Department of Biomedical Sciences

Mental health disorders such as addiction, depression, and anxiety disorders have become an increasingly larger burden on society, both from a general health standpoint as well as an economic perspective. To combat this growing epidemic, newer, more effective pharmacotherapies are necessary. One option to do so it to look at alternative targets beyond the usual neurotransmitter suspects. Our research focuses on the gut peptide receptor called the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R). Drugs targeting GLP-1R have shown great promise in treating type II diabetes and managing obesity. However, we and others have shown that brain GLP-1R has potential to treat neuropsychiatric conditions as well. Our data demonstrate the potential to use drugs that have already been approved for clinical use for other disorders to also be beneficial for use in mental health disorders.

Crick Lecture Series

Wednesday, April 12, 2017, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series

Wednesday, February 15, 2017, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series

Monday, October 17, 2016, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series

Thursday, April 14, 2016, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series

Thursday, February 11, 2016, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Tuning Philosophical Intuitions: Cognitive Experience and Restrictionism by Dr. Chad Gonnnerman, University of Southern Indiana

Thursday, September 10, 2015, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - A Primer on the Drug Development Process and Challenges Facing the Pharmaceutical Industry by Dr. David McKinzie, Lilly Research Laboratories

Wednesday, February 11, 2015, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Understanding Individual Differences in Temperament: Insights from Neuroscience and Development by Dr. Emily Durbin, Michigan State

Wednesday, November 12, 2014, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Tuning Philosophical Intuitions: Cognitive Experience and Restrictionism by Dr. Chad Gonnnerman, University of Southern Indiana

Wednesday, September 10, 2014, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Acting without Intending: An analysis of ‘flow’ in Skilled Movement by Dr. Derek Jones, University of Evansville

Wednesday, April 9, 2014, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Motor Performance Following Concussion by Dr. Robert Catena, University of Evansville

Wednesday, February 12, 2014, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Idealization and Identity in the Mind Sciences by Dr. Tom Polger, University of Cincinnati

Wednesday, November 13, 2013, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Featuring Thomas Polger, Professor of Philosophy, University of Cincinnati

Crick Lecture Series - Are Science and Religion Compatible by Dr. Dale Edwards, University of Evansville

Wednesday, September 11, 2013, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Featuring Dale Edwards, UE Professor of Biology

Crick Lecture Series - Soy Diets and Stroke Outcomes by Dr. Joe Cheatwood, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine

Wednesday, April 10, 2013, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - The Varieties of Complexity by Dr. Luciano Floridi, University of Hertfordshire

Monday, November 12, 2012, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Luciano Floridi is professor of philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire – where he holds the Research Chair in Philosophy of Information and the UNESCO Chair of Information and Computer Ethics – and Fellow of St. Cross College, University of Oxford. He is the founder and director of the IEG, the Oxford University Information Ethics Research Group.

Crick Lecture Series - Complexity and Cognition: Circuits Not Software by Dr. Anthony Beavers, University of Evansville

Wednesday, April 11, 2012, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Mechanisms of Sexually Dimorphic Estradiol Neuroprotection by Dr. Damani N. Bryant, Oregon Health & Science University

Wednesday, February 8, 2012, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Being Part of Something Bigger Than Us: The Patterns that Human Groups Spontaneously Create by Dr. Robert Goldstone, Indiana University

Wednesday, November 9, 2011, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Phytoestrogen Effect on Neonatal Rat Development by Dr. Lora Becker, University of Evansville

Wednesday, September 7, 2011, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Animat Liberation by Mr. Derek Jones, Indiana University and UE Alum, Class of ’03

Monday, April 11, 2011, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Are You a Juvenile Sex Offender? It Depends on Who You Are, Not Just What You Did by Dr. Maggie Stevenson, University of Evansville

Wednesday, February 9, 2011, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - When Your Profile Knows More about You than You Do: The Power of Cognitive Computing, or Why I Left Facebook by Dr. Anthony Beavers, University of Evansville

Monday, September 27, 2010, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Special Event for the Inauguration of UE's New President, Dr. Tom Kazee.

Crick Lecture Series - Sensory Neurophysiology and Targeted Brain Repair by Dr. Dennis L. Barbour, Washington University, St. Louis.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Cognition of Art by Dr. Ralph Larmann, University of Evansville

Wednesday, April 21, 2010, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - The HOT Theory of Consciousness and Its Neural Realization by Dr. Rocco Gennaro, University of Southern Indiana

Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Measuring Working Memory Capacity Using Repetition Priming of Words by Dr. Bascom Raulerson III, University of Southern Indiana

Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Diagnosis and Treatment of Mental Disease: One Psychiatrist’s Perspective by Boris Vatel, M.D., Psychiatrist, Evansville State Hospital

Wednesday, September 9, 2009, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Methamphetamine Use in Adults by Dr. Michael Williams, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - The Extended Mind and Intentionality by Mr. Steve Harris, University of Evansville

Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Human-Robot Interaction: The Need for Situated Embodied Natural Language Processing by Dr. Matthias Scheutz, Indiana University

Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Fruit Flies Inform Gender-based Behavior by Dr. Joyce Stamm, University of Evansville

Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Autism and the Brain by Mr. Trent Kriete, University of California, Merced, and UE Alum, Class of ’98

Wednesday, April 16, 2008, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - How We ‘Think and Feel’, Does It Matter by Dr. John K. Layer, University of Evansville

Wednesday, February 20, 2008, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Monkeys, Mirror Neurons, and Other Minds by Dr. Colin Allen, Indiana University

Wednesday, November 14, 2007, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Dreams and the Birth of Consciousness: What Made Us Human by Dr. Ken Carter, University of Southern Indiana

Wednesday, September 12, 2007, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - What Does Evolution Have to Do with Ethics by Dr. William R. Connolly, The University of Evansville

Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Are You Synching What I¹m Synching? Infants’ Real-time Detection of Audiovisual Synchrony during Language Development by Dr. George Hollich, Purdue University

Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Three Views of Cognitive Science by Dr. Larry Colter, The University of Evansville

Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - A Developmental Case of Environmental Effects on Emotional Expression by Dr. Lora Becker, The University of Evansville

Wednesday, September 13, 2006, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - The Frightened Brain: The Neuroscience of Fear by Dr. Chris Bloom, University of Southern Indiana

Wednesday, April 12, 2006, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Dark Caves, Bright Visions: Cognitive Archaeology and Prehistoric Art by Dr. James Berry, The University of Evansville

Wednesday, February 15, 2006, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - Modeling and Studying the Engineering Design Process with Soft Computing Techniques by Dr. Doug Ramers, The University of Evansville

Wednesday, November 16, 2005, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN

Crick Lecture Series - What Language Development in Autism, Fragile X Syndrome, and Down Syndrome Can Teach Us About How the Brain Works by Dr. Elizabeth Hennon, The University of Evansville

Wednesday, September 14, 2005, 4:00 p.m.
Koch Center for Engineering and Science, Vectren Lecture Hall, Room 100, University of Evansville Campus, 1800 Lincoln Ave, Evansville, IN