The Mind Science Foundation (MSF) is a private nonprofit scientific foundation in San Antonio, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, established by philanthropist Thomas Baker Slick in 1958.

The Mind Science Foundation’s modern-day mission is to raise awareness and levels of funding for one of the major unsolved questions in science: how consciousness arises in human beings (Science July 1, 2005).

Awards and sponsorship of research

MSF is a principal, international supporter of pilot data grants for consciousness research. Some recent award recipients include:

• Fred Gage – Salk Institute for Biological Studies
• Susan Greenfield – Oxford University
• Christof Koch
  Christof Koch
  Christof Koch is an American neuroscientist working on the neural basis of consciousness. He is the Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology at California Institute of Technology, where he has been since 1986...
  
   – California Institute of Technology
• V.S. Ramachandran – University of California San Diego

Lecture events

In addition to funding leading researchers in the field, the Mind Science Foundation hosts a Distinguished Speakers Series to heighten public awareness of practical topics related to human consciousness.
Examples of past speakers include:

• Jonas Salk
  Jonas Salk
  Jonas Edward Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist, best known for his discovery and development of the first safe and effective polio vaccine. He was born in New York City to parents from Ashkenazi Jewish Russian immigrant families...
  
   – Inaugural Speaker, Distinguished Speakers Series
• Steven Laureys
  Steven Laureys
  Steven Laureys is a Belgian neurologist.-Career:Laureys graduated as a Medical Doctor from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, in 1993. While specializing in neurology he entered a research career and obtained his M.Sc. in Pharmaceutical Medicine working on pain and stroke using in vivo...
  
   – University of Liege, Belgium
• J. Allan Hobson - Harvard Medical School
• Kay Redfield Jamison
  Kay Redfield Jamison
  Kay Redfield Jamison is an American clinical psychologist and writer whose work has centered on bipolar disorder which she has suffered from since her early adulthood...
  
   Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Temple Grandin
  Temple Grandin
  Temple Grandin is an American doctor of animal science and professor at Colorado State University, bestselling author, and consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior...
  
   – Colorado State University
• Jane Goodall
  Jane Goodall
  Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...
  
   – Goodall Institute

Sponsoring events

The Mind Science Foundation also supports international symposia and conferences focused on the scientific study of consciousness. MSF has also helped sponsor events with the following organizations:

• Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
  Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
  The Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness is a professional membership organization that aims to encourage research on consciousness in cognitive science, neuroscience, philosophy, and other relevant disciplines in the sciences and humanities, directed toward understanding the...
  
  
  • ASSC-8 Satellite meeting (Antwerp, 2004): “Coma and Impaired Consciousness”
  • ASSC-9 (Caltech, 2005)
  • ASSC-10 (Oxford, 2006)

• Mind and Life Institute
  Mind and Life Institute
  The Mind and Life Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the relationship of science and Buddhism as methodologies in understanding the nature of reality...
  
   - http://www.mindandlife.org/
  • Public Meeting with the Dalai Lama
    Dalai Lama
    The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
    
     (M.I.T., 2003)
  • Public Meeting with the Dalai Lama
    Dalai Lama
    The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
    
    (Washington, D. C., 2005)

External links

• Official website
• For more information on conferences sponsored by the Mind Science Foundation: http://www.mindscience.org/conferences.html
• For more information on the scientific study of consciousness: http://www.mindscience.org/introtoconsciousness
• For more information on Tom Slick Awardees, http://www.mindscience.org/research/index.html