People: Paul Bach-y-Rita: Memorial Fund and Lecture Series

The purpose of the Paul Bach-y-Rita Memorial Lecture is to honor a pioneering neuroscientist who pushed back the boundaries of contemporary scientific thought regarding adult brain plasticity. Dr. Bach-y-Rita's ground breaking research demonstrated unequivocally that the adult brain possesses the capability to substitute a functioning stream of sensory information for one that has been damaged in order to carry out effective behavior. Moreover, this remarkable capability appears to persist in the aged brain and it may rely in part on an unconventional mode of transmitting sensory information that bypasses the discrete connections, known as synapses, that nerve cells in the brain make with each other.

The Memorial Lecture will be presented annually by a distinguished outside neuroscientist familiar with Dr. Bach-y-Rita's research contributions. In addition to delivering the Memorial Lecture, the invited speaker will be expected to meet with interested faculty and students during her/his visit to the UW-Madison campus. The Memorial Lecture Fund will reimburse the speaker for travel, lodging and meals expenses, and provide her/him with an honorarium. The Fund also will cover the cost of preparing an engraved certificate for the speaker commemorating the Lecture. The Director of the Keck Laboratory for Biological Imaging has the authority to spend from this fund.

Current information on the lecture series (as of 3/24/2010)

Lecture Series Coordinator: R. Ronald Kalil, director of the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Biological Imaging

Lecture series:

• 4/3/2009 Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Learning about seeing from the blind, 4PM, John D. Wiley Conference Center Second Floor, Waisman Center 1500 Highland Avenue University of Wisconsin-Madison. Further information is in PDF files: postcard announcement and poster announcement. If you missed the lecture, it is available by online streaming video.
• 4/23/2010 Dr. Michael Merzenich, A neuroplasticity perspecitive about the origins of human ability - medical and philosophical implications, 4pm, Genetics Biotechology Center, 425 Henry Mall, Room 1111 Auditorium. Further information in PDF files postcard announcement and poster announcement.
• 4/29/2011 Dr. Pawan Sinha, Project Prakash: Combining Science and Service, 4pm, Genetics Biotechology Center, 425 Henry Mall, Room 1111 Auditorium.
  View announcement | View information on Dr. Sinha

Donations to the Fund

If you are interested in contributing to the Paul Bach-y-Rita Memorial Fund, or have questions about the lecture series, please contact:

Marilyn S. Rhodes, Director of Development
Corporate and Foundations Relations
University of Wisconsin Foundation
1848 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53708-8860
Phone: 608-265-6119 FAX: 608-263-0781

Alternatively, you may make a secure donation online to the University of Wisconsin Foundation. If you choose to make an online donation, please be sure to designate your gift to “Other-detailed below” and in the box below enter “Paul Bach-y-Rita Memorial Lecture Fund, Fund #12584843.” Thank you for honoring Dr. Bach-y-Rita.

A third option is to complete and mail the donation form: Donation Form (PDF)

The UW Foundation also established the Tactile Communication & Neurorehabilitation Laboratory Fund to continue the line of research pioneered by Dr. Bach-y-Rita. This is separate from the Paul Bach-y-Rita Memorial Lecture Fund.