About Us
The Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC) is an academic society that promotes rigorous research and coordinates annual conferences directed toward understanding the nature, function, and underlying mechanisms of consciousness. The ASSC includes members working in the fields of cognitive science, medicine, neuroscience, philosophy, and other relevant disciplines in the sciences and humanities.
History
Society Founded
The ASSC was founded in 1994
First Executive Board
The first executive board was formed in 1996 by Bernard Baars, William Banks, Stanley Klein, Thomas Metzinger, David Chalmers and Patrick Wilken.
First ASSC Conference
The first ASSC conference was held in Claremont, California, in 1997. Click here to download the program from this milestone event!
First Journal
Between 2007 and 2010, the journal Psyche was the official publication of ASSC. Psyche was founded in 1992 by Patrick Wilken and Kevin Korb, and edited by Patrick Wilken until 2004.
Present Day
Annual meetings have been held every year since and are now rotated between Europe, the Americas and Asia. Since 2015, the official journal of the society is the open-access journal Neuroscience of Consciousness.
ASSC Executive Committee
Each year, the ASSC Board proposes a sole nominee for President-elect. Their nomination is approved by the ASSC voting members in the December elections.
The ASSC members also elect two new Members-at-Large to join the Board every year. Board members serve for a three-year term and may serve for up to two consecutive terms. Only voting members can be nominated and their nomination needs to be supported by two other voting members of the ASSC.
Board of Directors
Kia Nobre
PRESIDENT
Yale University, Psychology / Center for Neurocognition and Behavior, Wu Tsai Institute, USA
Kia Nobre is a Wu Tsai Professor at Yale University in Connecticut, United States in the Psychology Department, and Director of the Center for Neurocognition and Behavior at the Wu Tsai Institute.
Adrian Owen
PRESIDENT-ELECT
University of Western Ontario, Canada
Adrian M. Owen OBE, FRS, FRSC, FCAHS, PhD is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
Lionel Naccache
PAST PRESIDENT
Santé Sorbonne Université / APHP / INSERM / ICM, France
Lionel Naccache is co-leader of Physiological Investigation of clinically normal & impaired cognition team at the ICM, and is Professor of Physiology at the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital and University of Paris.
Members at Large
Liad Mudrik
2024-2027
Tel Aviv University
Jacobo Sitt
2020-2027
Brain & Spine Institute, Paris
Megan Peters
2022-2028
University of California, Irvine
Olivia Carter
2022-2028
University of Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences
Steve Fleming
2026- 2029
University College London
Matthias Michel
2026- 2029
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Past and President list
2027– Adrian Owen (Currently President-Elect)
2026 – Kia Nobre, Yale University, Psychology / Center for Neurocognition and Behavior, Wu Tsai Institute, USA
2025 – Lionel Naccache, Santé Sorbonne Université / APHP / INSERM / ICM, France (Currently Past President)
2024 – Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France
2023 – Joseph LeDoux, Center for Neural Science, New York University
2022 – Elisabeth Pacherie, Institut Jean Nicod, Ecole Normale Supérieure
2021 – Axel Cleeremans, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium (Election postponement due to COVID)
2020 – Axel Cleeremans, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
2019 – Susanna Siegel, Harvard University
2018 – Patrick Haggard, University College London
2017 – Catherine Tallon-Baudry, Ecole Normale Supèrieure, France
2016 – Steven Laureys, Universite de Liege, Belgium
2015 – Marisa Carrasco, New York University, USA
2014 – David Chalmers, New York University & Australian National University
2013 – Andreas Engel, Hamburg University
2012 – Victor Lamme, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
2011 – Ralph Adolphs, California Institute of Technology, USA
2010 – Thomas Metzinger, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
2009 – Giulio Tononi, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2008 – David Rosenthal, CUNY Graduate Center
2007 – Michael Gazzaniga, University of California, Santa Barbara
2006 – Daniel C. Dennett, Tufts University
2005 – Stanislas Dehaene, I.N.S.E.R.M.
2004 – Petra Stoerig, Heinrich-Heine-University
2003 – Ned Block, New York University
2002 – Larry Weiskrantz, Oxford University
2001 – Chris Frith, University College London
2000 – Phil Merikle, University of Waterloo
1999 – Mel Goodale, University of Western Ontario
1998 – Christof Koch, California Institute of Technology
1997 – Bernard Baars, The Wright Insitute, Berkeley
ASSC Officers
Executive Director
Lucie Charles
Queen Mary,
University of London
Administrator
Florence Lourdes
Partnerships, Western University
Director of Communications
Maria Niedernhuber
Committees
The members of each committee are appointed by the Board of Directors. Please get in touch if you would like to join!
Elections Committee
The elections committee secures nominations for president-elect and members-at-large.
- Lucie Charles
- Florence Lourdes
Community Building Committee
The ASSC is launching a new committee focused on characterizing the community of consciousness researchers and scholars and strengthening it.
- Liad Mudrik Chair
- Camilo Miguel Signorelli
- Mar Estarellas
- Vishal Kapoor
- François Stockart
- Yaron Caspi
Membership Committee
The membership committee reviews applications to join the ASSC and changes in membership status.
- Vishal Kapoor (Chair)
- Charlene Lam
- Yaron Caspi
Student Committee
The student committee is made up of full members and students. It aims to foster greater involvement of students within the ASSC, and improve ways in which the ASSC serves the needs of its student members.
- Hanna Tolle (Chair)
- Michael Angyus
- Bobby Tromm
- Emma Moorhead
- Maximilian Kathofer
- Dezhi Luo
- Magdalena Jaglinska
- Boki Milinkovic
- Kenneth Shinozuka
Prize Committee
The Prize Committee selects the recipient of the annual William James Prize for an outstanding published contribution to the empirical or philosophical study of consciousness. This award is open to graduate students and postdoctoral scholars/researchers within 5 years of receiving a PhD.
- Joseph LeDoux
- Lionel Naccache
- Kia Nobre
- Axel Cleeremans
- Athena Demertzi
- Emmanuel Stamatakis
- Biyu He
- Jacobo Sitt
- Liad Mudrik
- Megan Peters
- Olivia Carter