TSC 2014 at Tucson, USA

M. Twentieth Anniversary Conference on Toward a Science of Consciousness

TSC 2014 (April 21-26, 2014), Tucson, Arizona, USA

A large delegation from DEI, comprising around 50 faculty members, research scholars and students visited Tucson, Arizona, USA for the Twentieth Anniversary Conference on Toward a Science of Consciousness (TSC 2014) organized from April 21-26, 2014 for both the East-West Forum on April 21 as well as the main event in the following days.

As a run-up to TSC 2014 at Arizona, DEI Centre for Consciousness Studies organized a pre-event rehearsal (TSC@DEI 2014) on April 5 to discuss, debate and crystallize our ideas to be presented before an international audience at Tucson. It was attended by experts in the field from diverse areas who have applied scientific methods to study of consciousness, especially from the viewpoint of Eastern Philosophy. The high point of the symposium was the Vision Talk by Revered Prof. P.S. Satsangi, Chairman Advisory Committee on Education, Dayalbagh Educational Institutions, entitled “Consciousness : An Integrative Systems Modelling Approach”. Prof. A.K.Mukhopadhyay, Head, Department of Laboratory Medicine, AIIMS and one of the Forum Chairs of the East-West Forum at TSC 2014 delivered a plenary talk entitled “Tricky Conceptual Issues in Consciousness Research”. Prof. James Barrell joined the mini-Panel Discussion through Skype.

The East-West Forum on April 21 was held in video-conferenced mode with DEI, Dayalbagh. The Vision Talk was delivered from Dayalbagh by Revered Prof. P.S. Satsangi, Chairman, ACE. Panel Discussion was held on “Consciousness : Integrating Eastern and Western Perspectives” with notable inputs from DEI also. East-West forum poster session was held in the evening after the oral talks and discussion. Among the foreign experts at the East-West Forum were Prof. James Barrell, Prof. Jack Tuszynski, Prof. Rocco Gennaro and Prof. Paavo Pylkkanen, who is the organizer of TSC 2015 at Helsinki, Finland in June 2015.

In the subsequent days, DEI delegation participated fully in the TSC 2014 main event. The Inaugural Plenary Talk was delivered by Prof. David Chalmers on April 22 and Sir Roger Penrose gave a Plenary Talk on April 23. Bhaumik Prize for Consciousness Studies ($10,000) was presented to Sir Roger Penrose. DEI concurrent talk and posters were held on April 23. The Poster session involved lot of discussion also and continued till late in the evening.