Heading - Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study

April 28, 2008

Dr. Claudio Cioffi-Revilla from Krasnow was recognized as a Galileo Award Finalist at a ceremony presided by J. Michael McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, for his paper entitled "Beyond the Visible Spectrum: Applied Computational Social Science for Boosting Intelligence Analysis". The Galileo Award competition is a new annual event for intelligence analysts to write on innovative approaches for improving the national intelligence capacity in areas of high priority. Dr. Cioffi wrote his paper while serving last year at the US Department of State as a Jefferson Science Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and Senior Science and Technology Advisor in the Office of The Geographer and Global Issues. Dr. Lee Schwartz, The Geographer of the State Department, who sponsored and worked closely with Dr. Cioffi, also attended the restricted invitation-only awards ceremony held at the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center DIAC at Bolling AFB, headquarters of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Others present included the Galileo Award winners and finalists, chiefs and deputies of the sixteen agencies of the intelligence community, and special guests.

New neuroscience PhD students were welcomed into the program with a student-faculty picnic held at the Krasnow Institute Friday, August 24.

On May 21st and 22nd, the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study held a symposium gathering leading researchers on many varied disciplines of brain study including neuroscience, neurobiology, computer science, psychology, robotics and economics. The speakers discussed the viability of a possible decade-long research initiative into the mind. Video of the presentations is available here.

On Monday, the Neuroscience Graduate Student Organization was pleased to welcome renowned neuroscientist Dr. Rodolfo Llinas to the Krasnow Institute. After a day of meeting with Krasnow researchers, he presented a talk: Intrinsic electrical properties of neurons and brain function.

On Sunday afternoon, April 15, guests of the Krasnow Institute enjoyed a Wizards basketball game from a Verizon executive suite. Unfortunately, the Wizards lost to the Chicago Bulls.

Congratulations are extended to Dr. Kenneth De Jong, Associate Director of the Krasnow Institute and Professor of Computer Science who is selected to receive the 2007 Volgenau School Outstanding Research Faculty Award.

In other news, construction of the new wing of the Krasnow Institute is nearing completion. The pathway connecting the two buildings should be opening within a matter of weeks. In addition, faculty searches are being conducted to fill positions for new Principal Investigators which will add to the on-going growth of the Krasnow Institute.

Congratulations go out to Dr. Claudio Cioffi-Revilla, Center for Social Complexity, for his appointment to the National Science and Technology Council. He is serving on the subcommittee on Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences.

The 12,500 square foot expansion to the Krasnow Institute nears completion. The outside walls and windows are completed and the pathway into the existing building is being constructed. Over the coming months, the interior of the space will be constructed as well. The building is due to be completed this spring.

In a ceremony held on Wednesday, January 10, in the President's office, Jane Wendelin, Business Manager for the Institute, was presented with the award for Employee of the Month. President Merten made a point to highlight that Jane is truly a "class act" and a real benefit to the university. Her family and co-workers attended the ceremony. Congratulations to Jane!!

Unusually warm weather and dry conditions have contributed to significant progress on the addition to the building. The brick facade is in place, windows are being put in, and the pathway between the new and old structures is being constructed. The building should be fully enclosed shortly after the start of the new year.

On October 24, 2006, the Krasnow Institute was host to over 80 guests for a research open house. Attendees included members from the scientific community, George Mason community, and the Krasnow facility, among others.

The research open house provided outsiders the opportunity to get a glimpse of what members of the scientific team at Krasnow do and what their goals are as they continue to make scientific advances. Krasnow's state of the art research tools and technology, including the new 3T MRI, were the highlight of the night's reception. It truly was a "Magnetic Moment" in the life of the Krasnow Institute.

Meanwhile, rapid progress is being made on the structure of the Krasnow expansion. Framing for walls has been put up and dry-wall is being put into place as well. Within a matter of weeks, the building will be connected to the current structure.

As we begin to enter the fall and winter seasons, the expansion to the institute begins to take more shape with the addition of framework for the exterior walls. Exterior walls are expected to be in place in December.

With the semester underway and the MRI operational, the first test scans on the MRI equipment are examined and analyzed. Having conducted a recent upgrade of the equipment, the official opening of the MRI facility will take place at the end of October.

As the semester approaches, the expansion begins to take further shape. Steel beams and flooring begin to outline the true structure of Krasnow's new wing.

Krasnow is also pleased to announce that Claudio Cioffi-Revilla, Director of Krasnow's Center for Social Complexity, was awarded a Jefferson Science Fellowship by the Department of State for the 2006-2007 term.

The Jefferson Science Fellows program, under the Department of State, brings together the communities of academic science and engineering with United States foreign policy. During his one-year term, the fellow works for a bureau of the State Department. Dr. Cioffi specializes in conflict analysis and research methods, modeling , and simulation. His research has been funded by NSF, DARPA, and other agencies, including collaborative research with the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

It's a really busy summer at Krasnow. We're taking in three new principal investigators who will significantly expand our research profile. We're in the middle of the build-out of the expansion project that will take Krasnow to 33,000 square feet. And our new 3T MRI is now operational as the lead instrumentation in our
Neuroimaging Core.

The magnet arrives! On Monday, May 8, 2006, the long-awaited 3-telsa MRI machine arrived at Krasnow. Draped in a red tarp, it was the first piece of equipment to arrive. Next came the truck bearing the magnet's supporting machinery, and finally, the cranes to be used in placing the 8,000-pound machine into the building.

With the magnet in place, co-director of the Neuroscience Imaging Core of the Krasnow Institute (NICKI) Dr. Layne Kalbfleisch (right) reviews plans with the supervisor of the installation team.

March 8, 2006

On March 8, 2006, workers laid the eight-inch concrete slab required to bear the weight of the 8,000-pound MRI machine. Work is on schedule and the magnet arrival is expected in May.

January 11, 2006

On January 11, 2006, George Mason University and the Krasnow Insititute
celebrated the planned expansion to the Krasnow building and the
acquisition of a brain imager/scanner with a joint groundbreaking and
ribbon cutting event . Guests were spared the ravages of January weather
by a unique indoor ceremony featuring a wheel barrow for the ground
breaking. A ribbon cutting recognized the purchase of a Siemens
Magnetom Allegra 3 Tesla functional MRI scanner which will be installed
in space in the current building. Congressman Tom Davis (R-VA) attended
the event and following brief remarks lent a hand with shovel and
scissors. Along with Mason president Alan Merten, Krasnow advisory
board members Bill Nitze and Virginia Pomata, who played key roles in
helping the Institute reach these milestones, were on hand to celebrate.

The construction, to be underway by February, will add 12,500 square
feet of research space to the Krasnow building. The MRI scanner
acquisition makes GMU one of only two non-medical schools to own such
technology and provides GMU researchers access to a state-of-the-art
tool to use in cognitive and neuroscience investigations.

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