These are highlights of major upcoming events sponsored by the Center or involving its affiliates.

2009

4th International African Conference on Early Childhood Development, "From Policy to Action: Expanding Investment in ECD for Sustainable Development."

November 10-13; Dakar, Senegal

The conference, organized by the ECD Working Group of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa, is hosted by the government of Senegal. James Cairns, the project director for the Center's Global Children's Initiative, will make a presentation on "Building the Foundation for Investment: A Science-based Framework for Child Heath and Development."

"The Science of Early Childhood Development: Closing the Gap Between What We Know and What We Do."

November 12, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey; and November 13, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey

Center Director Jack P. Shonkoff will deliver lectures to academic audiences in Turkey.

2010

"Applying the Science of Early Childhood Development to State Policy"

January 7; Seattle, Wash.

The daylong symposium will offer scientific presentations and engage leaders from multiple states in exploring the application of science to specific state policies and programs. The event is co-presented by the Center on the Developing Child, the Institute for Learning & Brain Science at the University of Washington, Casey Family Programs, and the National Conference of State Legislatures. Speakers include Megan Gunnar of the University of Minnesota and Jack P. Shonkoff, director of the Center on the Developing Child. Gunnar and Shonkoff are both members of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child.

Conference on Social Determinants of Health

January 15-16; Cambridge, Mass.

The Center is working in collaboration with the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies at the Harvard School of Public Health to convene a public conference in January. It will build on the recommendations of the landmark 2008 report by the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), which emphasized the critical importance of investment in the early childhood years if there is any chance to achieve its vision of closing the health disparities gap in a generation. The Harvard conference will also move a policy agenda forward and develop a research agenda to strengthen the evidence base. The planning group is also drawing on faculty from the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Distinguished Scholars Lecture Series

Eric Kandel, M.D.
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2000

“Molecular Biology of Memory Storage and the Biological Basis of Individuality”

February 8

Science Center, 1 Oxford St., Cambridge, Mass.

Co-Sponsors: Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Medical School

Dr. Kandel will consider the neural systems and molecular mechanisms that contribute to learning and long-term memory. He will divide his talk into two parts: First, he will consider how different memory systems in the human brain were identified and shown to be involved in simple and complex forms of memory storage. Dr. Kandel will then go on to outline animal studies of simple forms of memory, which demonstrated that long-term memory is reflected in the growth of new synaptic connections, as well as complex forms of memory in the hippocampus. Finally, Dr. Kandel will discuss how our insights into memory are allowing us to understand various forms of age-related memory loss.

Eric R. Kandel, M.D., is University Professor of Physiology and Cell Biophysics, Psychiatry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University; Fred Kavli Professor and Director, Kavli Institute for Brain Science and a Senior Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. A graduate of Harvard College and N.Y.U. School of Medicine, Dr. Kandel trained in neurobiology at the National Institutes of Health and in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He joined the faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in 1974 as the founding director of the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior. At Columbia, Dr, Kandel organized the neuroscience curriculum. He is an editor of Principles of Neural Science, the standard textbook in the field. He recently has written a book on the brain for the general public entitled, In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind.
Dr. Kandel’s research has been concerned with the molecular mechanisms of memory storage in Aplysia and mice. More recently, he has studied animal models in mice of memory disorders and mental illness. Dr. Kandel has received 18 honorary degrees, is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences as well as the National Science Academies of Germany and France. He has been recognized with the Albert Lasker Award, the Heineken Award of the Netherlands, the Gairdner Award of Canada, the Wolf Prize of Israel, the National Medal of Science USA and the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2000.

Discussant: Steven E. Hyman, M.D., Provost of Harvard University and Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School.

"The Long Reach of Early Childhood Poverty: Pathways and Impacts"

February 21; San Diego, Calif.

This session will take place at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and will explore how poverty and its attendant stressors have the potential to shape the neurobiology of the developing child in powerful ways. Speakers: W. Thomas Boyce, University of British Columbia; Greg J. Duncan, University of California; Katherine Magnuson, University of Wisconsin. Discussant: Center Director Jack P. Shonkoff. Boyce, Duncan, and Shonkoff are members of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, and Duncan, Magnuson, and Shonkoff are members of the National Forum on Early Childhood Program Evaluation.