Hakwan Lau, Bio

 

Dr. Lau earned his doctoral degree from Oxford University, and was a professor at Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In 2021 he joined as the team leader of the RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Japan.

In his academic book ‘In Conscious We Trust’, published in 2022, Dr. Lau presented an original theory of consciousness perception through empirical research and theoretical cooperation. In recent years, studies such as the interpretation of whether machines such as artificial intelligence (AI) can be conscious like humans (‘17, Science) and the presentation of computational methodologies to evaluate metacognitive abilities have attracted attention. Based on these achievements, he won major awards in psychological science, including the William James Award in 2005 and the Janet Taylor Spence Award in 2012.

Dr. Lau joined IBS in September 2024, and set a goal to find fundamental reasons why the way humans experience the world is different from other animals. Specifically, to reveal why the development of the prefrontal cortex, one of the unknown regions of the brain, is particularly noticeable in humans compared to other animals and how its function contributes to perception, he plans to study a combination of non-invasive experimental methods that are safe for humans and advanced technologies that can be used in animal models such as rodents.

Director’s profile

Education

 

1998 ~ 2001	University of Hong Kong, Cognitive Science, B.A. .
2001 ~ 2005	University of Oxford, Experimental Psychology, Ph.D..

Professional Record

 

2024 ~ Present	Sungkyunkwan University, Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research Co-Director
2021 ~ 2024	RIKEN Center for Brain Science Team Leader
2018 ~ 2021	UCLA, Department of Psychology (Cognitive & Behavioral Neuroscience) & Brain Research Institute Full Professor
2017 ~ 2018 2018 ~ 2020	University of Hong Kong, Department of Psychology Associate Professor Full Professor
2014 ~ 2018	UCLA, Department of Psychology (Cognitive & Behavioral Neuroscience) & Brain Research Institute Associate Professor
2012 ~ 2014	Columbia University (NYC), Department of Psychology   Associate Professor

Keywords

fMRI, Perception, Prefrontal cortex, Neurofeedback, Computational Neuroscience

Google Scholar   https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RGBSG7EAAAAJ&hl=en

Lab Web Site   https://peinlabs.github.io/