A member of Memorial’s Department of Philosophy is relaunching a lecture series on cognitive science to showcase how researchers from across the university’s various disciplines think about language, learning and the brain.

“When I was a PhD student at Rutgers University, they had a world-class cognitive science centre and lecture series which I tried to replicate at Memorial from 2005-07,” said Dr. Arthur Sullivan, a professor in the department who specializes in the philosophy of language and the mind, logic, epistemology and metaphysics. “Now, with the emphasis in our faculty on reinvention, I thought it would be a good time to ‘relook’ at cognitive science.”

According to Dr. Sullivan, the term “cognitive science” has been around since the 1960s and there are a handful of universities where students can do an undergraduate degree in the subject.

Along with linguist Dr. Yvan Rose, Dr. Sullivan is working on a proposal for a minor in the subject, which would be a stepping stone to an eventual major program and graduate degree.

Drawing on aspects of psychology, linguistics, philosophy and computer modeling, the 2016 lecture series will feature speakers from computer science, music, linguistics, philosophy, and psychology.

The series begins Wednesday Sept. 14, at 1 p.m. in A-2071 with Dr. Todd Wareham, Department of Computer science, speaking on the topic of Computational Complexity Analysis in Cognitive Science: Foundations and Applications.

All are welcome to attend. For more information, please contact Dr. Arthur Sullivan.