Insight Out: Exhibition Walkthrough

November 12
McIntosh Gallery
4:30-6 PM

Join us for an exciting program of casual yet informative exhibition walkthroughs. Special guests from across campus and the broader community will respond to McIntosh Gallery's current exhibition, Three Dimensions, from their unique perspectives.

Participants:
Peter Chidiac – Department of Physiology and Pharmacology
Jörn Diedrichsen - Departments of Computer Science and Statistical & Actuarial Sciences, and the Centre for Brain & Mind
Michael Schmalz - Videogame Executive

Dr. Peter Chidiac earned his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Toronto, followed by postdoctoral studies at the University of Montreal and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He joined Western as a faculty member in 1998 and is currently a Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology in the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. For the last 15 years, he has taught an undergraduate course on the pharmacology of drugs of abuse. His laboratory studies how cells use receptors to communicate with one another, and one current project focuses on comparing how psychedelic and non-psychedelic drugs interact at the cellular level with serotonin receptor signaling complexes. Outside of the laboratory and the classroom, he enjoys cooking and music.  

Jörn Diedrichsen received a PhD in Neuroscience from UC Berkeley. After a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University and a faculty position at the University College London, he came to Western University as a Western Research Chair in the Western Institute of Neuroscience, and in the Departments for Computer Science and Statistics. His laboratory uses behavioral, computational and functional imaging methods to study how a) the human brain acquires skilled movements, b) how the human cerebellum contributes to human motor and cognitive functions. His work is supported by 2 CIHR project grants, and funding from the Raynor Cerebellar Project. He is highly engaged in Open Science: His laboratory is developing and supporting a number of widely used toolboxes for the analysis of functional imaging data.

Michael Schmalz served as President of Digital Extremes for 20 years, the Ontario studio behind the iconic Warframe game created in London Ontario. Warframe has attracted over 80M users and become one of the most successful Free-to-Play action-adventure games worldwide. Under his leadership, Digital Extremes was consistently recognized as one of Canada's top employers and received the Most Admired Corporate Cultures award in 2021. Michael himself was honoured as Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year in Entertainment and Media in 2016. He holds a Ph.D. in Media Studies, a Master's in Engineering Science, and an MBA. Michael currently serves as Board Chair of the Canada Media Fund and Chair of TechAlliance of Southwestern Ontario.