There are substantial unexploited opportunities for mutual scientific benefit between brain science and the physical and mathematical sciences, computer science, and engineering. One of the remarkable features of the nervous system is that it exhibits structurally and functionally significant patterns of organization over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales: spatial scales from molecules to the organismic and socio-cultural, and temporal scales from protein folding to the lifetimes of individuals and societies. Correspondingly, there is a wide range of methodological and conceptual approaches for investigating the brain at those different scales, all of which are candidates for productive interchange with the physical and mathematical sciences, computer science, and engineering.
Two workshop will be organized toward the following goals: (1) to characterize and explore the space of opportunities for mutual benefit between brain science and the physical and mathematical sciences, computer science, and engineering; (2) to identify examples of opportunities that are particularly ripe for mutual benefit given the current state of the art in each set of fields; and (3) to develop strategies to fully realize these cross-disciplinary research opportunities and their broader impacts.
