August 25-27, the JBC sponsored the first Student - Initiative Workshop: (Un)Consciousness: A Functional Perspective. This year's student winners: Ariel Goldstein, PhD candidate-Cognitive Science, Asael Sklar and Rasha Kardosh, PhD candidates, Psychology, along with their Conference Advisor-Prof. Ran Hassin, Psychology, organized the 3 day international conference.

The conference brought together some of the most notable researchers from various schools of thought, and enabled them to share their findings, theories and ideas regarding the nature of consciousness and its functions. Hebrew University Rector, Prof. Asher Cohen, welcomed everyone to the conference. Speakers included: Henk Aarts, Utrecht University, Moshe Bar,  Bar-Ilan University, Axel Cleeremans, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Ruud Custers,  University College London, Leon Deouell, Hebrew University, Baruch Eitam, Haifa University, Ran Hassin, Hebrew University, Sid Kouider, Ecole Normale Superieure-Paris, Dominique Lamy, Tel Aviv University, Rafi Malach, Weizmann Institute, Liad Mudrik, Tel Aviv University, Josef Parvizi, Stanford University, Keith Payne,  University of North Carolina, Anil Seth, University of Sussex, David Soto, Imperial College London, and Tim Wilson, University of Virginia.  

The conference focused on the changes in the study of consciousness and how it has moved from the realm of philosophy, into the spotlight of interdisciplinary scientific research. Cognitive and brain sciences have come together in an attempt to meet the challenges posed by the scientific study of consciousness. This modern endeavor has yielded important insights about neural mechanisms and their relation to human cognition and behavior, findings that give rise to new answers to age-old questions. 

In addition to the lectures, 24 posters from students at various universities around Israel presenting their research, were exhibited during the poster session. Students explained their current research findings to conference participants.

Click on the picture to view photos of the conference: