Dr. Michael Mauk, a professor at the Center for Learning and Memory at UT-Austin, will be the speaker at the Viewpoints Speaker-Dinner Series Feb. 21. He plans to explore “how the brain learns and how we learn from computer simulations of the brain.”

This popular dinner series is held at the Lakeway Activity Center. The doors open at 5:30 p.m., dinner is served at 6 p.m., and the speaker is introduced at 7 p.m.
“This man is a good speaker,” said Pat Jacobsen who, along with Allen Hitchcock, founded the Viewpoints dinner-speaker series 10 years ago. “Please remember to attend.”
Mauk attended the University of New Orleans on a baseball scholarship and received a BS in psychology in 1979. He received his PhD in 1985 from Stanford University based on work identifying the cerebellar pathways involved in learning.
After three years of postdoctoral training in neurophysiology at the department of Neurology of Stanford Medical School, he joined the faculty of the UT-Houston Medical School in 1988.
As a member of the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy Mauk was promoted to associate professor in 1996, to full professor in 2001 and was named the William M. Wheless Professor of Biomedical Sciences in 2004. In January 2007 he joined the Center for Learning and Memory, and the Section of Neurobiology at UT-Austin.
Mauk’s research investigates the brain mechanisms of learning. He is internationally known as a pioneer in the use of computer simulations to study learning and the function of the brain.
Fred Hazen will host the Feb. 21 speaker series. Sandi Boston is arranging for the caterer. If a Viewpoints member cannot attend a dinner, please gift your reservation to a friend. Call Sandi Boston at 261-4733 to report the substitution. If you do not gift your reservation, please call Sandi by the Wednesday before the dinner to cancel your reservation so that Viewpoints will not be charged for your meal.
— By Diane S. Smith