BPF Advisory Board

Brain Preservation Foundation (BPF) advisors are accomplished, high-integrity professionals who are publicly committed to the need for a thorough scientific evaluation of the state of the art of brain preservation technology. Many are constructive skeptics who see the potential value of the technology, yet who recognize there are many complex questions relating to its further development and social diffusion. They help BPF, a nonprofit charitable organization, to execute its mission, and to achieve the highest standards of professionalism, service, effectiveness, ethics, integrity, and transparency. They advise BPF on its communications and public profile, Prize structure, policy positions, competitor support and outreach, fundraising, and other issues relevant to assessing and advancing brain preservation technology. Each honors BPF greatly with their service, and may leave our advisory board at any time. While each BPF advisor may choose to advise on any topic, advisors are loosely grouped into the following functional areas.

Science and Technology
These distinguished individuals give BPF their advice and opinions on scientific and technical questions related to our mission, our support and outreach to competing scientific teams, and issues of usefulness, verification, falsifiability and professional credibility with respect to competition goals and procedures. Each typically has an advanced degree and a current affiliation with a university or research laboratory.

Cognitive Science and Psychology 

  • Michael Cerullo M.D., Psychiatrist, Cincinnati Inst. for Cognitive Science; Author, Uploading and Branching Identity, M&M, 2014
  • Susan Blackmore Ph.D., writer, lecturer, psychologist, skeptic, author, Consciousness: An Introduction (2011)
  • Jim Blascovich Ph.D., Co-Director of the Research Center for Virtual Environments & Behavior, UCSB
  • Michael Shermer Ph.D., Author, Founder, Skeptics Society, Editor, Skeptic magazine
  • Peter Thomas Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist, Holiner Group; Practitioner in adolescent, adult, and couples therapy

Computer Science 

  • Saar Wilf Co-Founder and Chairman, Rootclaim, Ltd. and PointGrab, Ltd.
  • Alex Wissner-Gross PhD; Associate in Computer Science, IACS at Harvard University; Expert-in-Residence, Harvard Innovation Lab
  • Daniel Berleant Ph.D., Author, Professor, Information Science, UALR, and Joint UALR/UAMS Bioinformatics Program
  • Ben Goertzel Ph.D., Author, Researcher in Artificial Intelligence; CSO, Aidyia Holdings, CEO, Novamente
  • Dileep George Ph.D., Comp. Neuroscientist, Past HTM Developer, Numenta; Co-Founder, Vicarious Systems
  • Bruce Katz Ph.D. Author, Adj. Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Drexel U., Chief Scientist, Coldlight
  • Juergen Schmidhuber Ph.D., Author, Scientific Dir of Swiss AI Lab IDSIA, Professor of AI, USI, Deep Learning expert

Computational Neuroscience 

  • Jacopo Annese Asst. Professor in Residence in the Dept. of Radiology, U.C.S.D. School of Medicine; President and CEO, Institute for Brain and Society
  • Anders Sandberg Ph.D., Computational Neuroscience, Research Fellow, Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford
  • Sebastian Seung Evnin Professor of Neuroscience and Computer Science, Princeton University
  • David Dalrymple M.S., Research Affiliate, MIT Media Lab, Director, Project Nemaload, C. elegans emulation
  • Chris Eliasmith Ph.D., Author, Prof., Director, CTN, Lab head, Computational Neuroscience Research Group, Waterloo
  • John-Dylan Haynes Ph.D., Prof., Theory & Analysis of Large-Scale Brain Signals, Bernstein Ctr. Comp. Neurosci, Berlin
  • Randal Koene Ph.D., Co-Founder, CarbonCopies
  • Olaf Sporns Ph.D., Author, Prof. Computational Neuroscience, Indiana U., Investigator, Human Connectome Project

Cryobiology 

Microscopy and Imaging

Molecular Biology and Genetics

  • João de Magalhães Ph.D., Director, Integrative Genomics of Aging Group, University of Liverpool
  • Gregory Stock Ph.D., Author, CEO, Signum Biosciences, Founder, Program on Medicine, Tech and Society, UCLA

Medicine

  • Navid Farahani M.D., Anatomic & Clinical Pathologist, Chief Medical Information Officer, 3Scan
  • Michael Cerullo M.D., Psychiatrist, Cincinnati Inst. for Cognitive Science; Author, Uploading and Branching Identity, M&M, 2014
  • Robert L. Blum M.D., Ph.D., Independent Scholar, Affiliate, Center for Mind, Brain, and Computation, Stanford U
  • Nicolás F. Lori Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor, IBILI, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal
  • Erik Viirre M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Surgery and Otoneurology and Cognitive Science, UCSD

Neuroscience

  • Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston Ph.D., Research Fellow, Monash Neuroscience of Consciousness
  • David Eagleman Ph.D., Author, Director, Laboratory for Perception and Action, Baylor College of Medicine
  • Shella Keilholz Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Emory University School of Medicine
  • Stephen Macknik Ph.D., Author, Director, Laboratory of Translational Neuroscience, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
  • Susana Martinez-Conde Ph.D., Author, Director, Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
  • Read Montague Ph.D., Author, Director, Human Neuroimaging Lab and Computational Psychiatry Unit, Virginia Tech
  • Peter Passaro D.Phil., Research Fellow, Neural Dynamics and Consciousness Lab, University of Sussex
  • Thomas Ramsøy Ph.D., Blogger, Prof., Decision Neurosciences Resrch Group, Copenhagen Bus. Sch. and DRCMR

Business and Fundraising

These philanthropic individuals help BPF with nonprofit business and strategy and with Prize or endowment fundraising activities.

  • John Smart Vice President and Co-Founder of the Brain Preservation Foundation
  • Jose Cordeiro MBA, Ph.D., Faculty, Singularity University, Chair, Millennium Project - Venezuela Node
  • Daniel Crevier Ph.D., Author, Founder, Coreco, now subsid. of Teledyne Tech
  • Rudi Hoffman CFP, CLU, ChFC, CEO of Hoffman Planning
  • John Mauldin Author, Pres., Millennium Wave Investments, Editor, Thoughts from the Frontline, Mauldin Economics

Media and Community

These accomplished advisors help with scientific, technical, and social issues around our public message, media relations, educational materials, or community development for the nonprofit.

  • Richard Doyle PhD; Professor of English and Liberal Arts, Penn State University.
  • Keith Wiley PhD, Computer Science. Data Scientist and Senior Software Engineer at Atigeo, Seattle, WA
  • Marshall Brain M.S., Author, Founder of How Stuff Works
  • Michael Chorost Ph.D., Author, Rebuilt (2006) and World Wide Mind (2011)
  • Charles B. Olson M.S., Author, A Possible Cure for Death, Medical Hypotheses 26:77-84
  • Giulio Prisco Telepresence developer, teleXLR8, blogger, former manager in the European Space Agency
  • Robert Tercek Innovation blogger, Fellow, Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturing, and Commerce

Policy and Legal

These legal and policy professionals help BPF with policy positions, legal, or governance issues and activities.

Philosophy, Ethics, and Society

These leading scholars help BPF consider the philosophical, ethical, and social implications of brain preservation technologies, and help BPF draft positions on these topics.

  • Peter Hankins Philosopher, author, Conscious Entities, weblog on human consciousness and cognition
  • Francesca Minerva PhD; Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Ghent
  • Robin Hanson Ph.D., Author, Prof., Economics, George Mason U; Fellow, Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford
  • Toby Ord Ph.D., Research Fellow, Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology at the University of Oxford
  • Susan Schneider Author, Asst Prof., Department of Philosophy, faculty, Center for Neuroscience and Society, U. Penn.
  • Nicholas Shackel Ph.D., Sen. Lect. Philos., Cardiff U.; Dist. Resrch Fellow, Uehiro Ctr for Practical Ethics, U. Oxford
  • Mark Walker Prof., Dept of Philos., New Mexico State U., Author, Personal Identity and Mind Uploading, JET 22:37-51
  • James Hughes Ph.D., Author, Exec. Director, Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies
  • James Giordano Ph.D., Chief, Neuroethics Studies Prog, Georgetown UMC
  • Andy Clark Ph.D., Author, Prof. of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh
  • David Chalmers Ph.D., Author, Director, Centre for Consciousness, Australian National U.
  • David Brin Ph.D., Physicist, futurist, reciprocal transparency advocate, science fiction author and resident contrarian

Late Advisors

These distinguised former advisors have passed away. We thank them deeply for their service to BPF and the world.

Disclaimer: 
BPF Advisors have their own views and opinions that are not necessarily those of BPF staff, and vice versa. Being a BPF Advisor does not create legal liability, either to or on behalf of BPF, with the exception of those advisors who at any time may also be directors or agents of BPF.

Apply to Be an Advisor
Are you a high-integrity individual with an interest in BPF’s mission and an accomplished background in any of the above functional areas? Please contact us, we’d love to hear from

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