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ALOUD, Science

Dreams, Genes, & Machines:
Are We Living Science Fiction?

In conversation with Jessica Strand, Library Foundation, Director of Public Programs
Date: Thursday, Jul 16, 2020
Time: 12pm
Location: Online Event
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View the video here!

The first five years of life are the most critical for learning. As children are using technology earlier and more frequently than ever, ALOUD tackles the neuroscience of screen time during COVID. Dr. Patricia K. Kuhl and Dr. Andrew N. Meltzoff, internationally recognized experts in child development and co-directors of the University of Washington Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, share from their research on social, cognitive, and linguistic development in a conversation with Library Foundation Director of Public Programs Jessica Strand. Join us to hear how learning with screens is transforming children—from learning languages and shaping culture, to interpreting media and acquiring biases. Dr. Kuhl’s pioneering work on early learning and brain development has earned many awards, and she has spoken at two White House conferences on early learning. Watch her fascinating TED talk on language acquisition in babies here. Dr. Meltzoff’s award-winning, interdisciplinary discoveries about infant and child development have helped transform our understanding of early cognition and social learning and have wide-reaching implications for work in autism spectrum disorder, social robotics, and developmental neuroscience. Named one of the 50 Most Influential Living Psychologists in 2019, Dr. Meltzoff is a co-author, with Kuhl and Dr. Alison Gopnik, of “The Scientist in the Crib,” among hundreds of other works. Log on to this timely conversation to go behind-the-scenes of our children’s brains online.

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Dr. Patricia K. Kuhl

Dr. Patricia Kuhl is the Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Learning and Co-Director of the University of Washington Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. Internationally recognized for research on language acquisition and the “social brain,” Kuhl pioneered brain measures on infants and young children and conducted studies demonstrating how children learn. Kuhl spoke at President and Mrs. Clinton’s White House conference on early learning, as well as President and Mrs. Bush’s White House conference on learning to read. Kuhl is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. She has received many prestigious awards: The Acoustical Society of America’s Silver Medal and Gold Medal, the international IPSEN Foundation’s Jean-Louis Signoret Neuropsychology Prize, the Association for Psychological Science’s William James Lifetime Achievement Award, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society’s George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Neuroscience, and the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award. Dr. Kuhl is co-author of The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Children Learn (Harper Collins). Dr. Kuhl’s TED talk can be viewed here.

Dr. Andrew N. Meltzoff

Dr. Andrew N. Meltzoff holds the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Endowed Chair in Psychology and is the Co-Director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. A graduate of Harvard, with a PhD from Oxford, he is an internationally renowned expert on infant and child development. His discoveries about infant imitation helped transform our understanding of early cognition and social learning and sparked experiments on infant neural body maps in developmental cognitive neuroscience. Named one of the 50 Most Influential Living Psychologists in 2019, Dr. Meltzoff has published more than 280 papers/chapters as well as co-authored two books, The Scientist in the Crib and Words, Thoughts, and Theories, and co-edited The Imitative Mind: Development, Evolution and Brain Bases. For his work, he has received numerous awards, including: Association for Psychological Science’s (APS) William James Fellow Award, American Psychological Association’s G. Stanley Hall Award, Giessen University’s Kurt Koffka Medal, Cambridge University’s Kenneth Craik Award in Psychology, and National Institutes of Health’s MERIT Award. Meltzoff is married to Dr. Patricia K. Kuhl, and they have one daughter.

This program is generously supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Image Credit: Young scientists test device, courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection

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Stacy Lieberman

As President and CEO of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles (LFLA), Stacy Lieberman is an innovative and inclusive leader whose career dwells at the intersection of arts and culture, lifelong learning, storytelling, and equitable access. Stacy guides the Foundation’s philanthropic and public-facing priorities to serve the Los Angeles Public Library, embracing the notion that libraries are beacons of democracy where everyone is welcome. She works intentionally with community leaders, donors, and internal and external strategic partners to raise awareness and resources for the Library and its life-changing initiatives.

With more than 20 years of experience as a senior executive, Stacy has left an indelible mark on iconic L.A. arts, non-profit, and educational institutions such as The Broad, the Autry Museum of the American West, and the Skirball Cultural Center. Building on an early career in book publishing, she has dedicated her professional life to sharing stories and broadening the reach of public institutions to welcome visitors and students of all ages and backgrounds to experience educational, arts, and cultural opportunities.