Consciousness attracts attention

A Centre for Consciousness has been established as part of the world-class Philosophy Program at ANU.

Professor David Chalmers, a specialist in philosophy of the mind and particularly consciousness and representation, will head the new Centre.

"The chance to set up the Centre was one I couldn’t pass up"

Professor Chalmers

Professor Chalmers, 38, was awarded a prestigious Federation Fellowship this year, moving from the University of Arizona and the deserts of Tucson to the Research School of Social Sciences in August.

“ANU has a fantastic group of philosophers with a great reputation who I’ve had long contact and collaboration with, so that was a major attraction in coming here,” Professor Chalmers said.

“I grew up and studied in Adelaide, and being closer to family and friends was also a big part of coming back to Australia.

“And the chance to set up the Centre for Consciousness was one I couldn’t pass up — the Philosophy Program here does some of the best research on consciousness in the world, and the new Centre will draw on that expertise.

“The Centre will focus on the interface between the subjective and objective world. It will focus on understanding how our subjective experiences arise from objective processes in the brain, and how they carry information about the objective external world.”

The ANU Philosophy Program was recently ranked in the top 10 programs in the English-speaking world by the respected Philosophical Gourmet Report 2004-6, a rating reinforced by the recent Quality Review of ANU.

An external assessor of the Review said of the Philosophy Program: “This group quite clearly deserves its standing among the top 12-15 programs in philosophy in the world, and would be higher were it larger … this is field-leading, dynamic work that has also made ANU a magnet for foreign scholars, and ANU faculty a regular target for raiding by top universities.”

Also in ANU Reporter Summer 2004/05:

Rethinking Pompeii

Parched earth policy

Testing China's road mettle

From the Vice-Chancellor's desk

News

World's first floating museum