Mind Science Foundation

Short description: Nonprofit organization in San Antonio, United States

The Mind Science Foundation (MSF) is a private non-profit scientific foundation in San Antonio, Texas , USA, established by the philanthropist Thomas Baker Slick in 1958.

The Foundation's mission is to raise awareness and levels of funding for one of the major unsolved questions in science: how consciousness arises in human beings.^[1]

Awards and sponsorship of research

MSF is a principal, international supporter of pilot data grants for consciousness research. Some recent award recipients include:

Fred Gage – Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Susan Greenfield – Oxford University
Christof Koch – California Institute of Technology
V.S. Ramachandran – University of California San Diego^[2]

Lecture events

In addition to funding leading researchers in the field, the Mind Science Foundation hosts a Distinguished Speakers Series to heighten public awareness of practical topics related to human consciousness. Examples of past speakers include:

Jonas Salk – inaugural speaker, Distinguished Speakers Series
Steven Laureys – University of Liege, Belgium
J. Allan Hobson - Harvard Medical School
Kay Redfield Jamison Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Temple Grandin – Colorado State University
Jane Goodall – Goodall Institute

Sponsoring events

The Foundation also supports international symposia and conferences focused on the scientific study of consciousness and has also helped to sponsor events with the following organizations:

Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
- ASSC-8 Satellite meeting (Antwerp, 2004): "Coma and Impaired Consciousness"
- ASSC-9 (Caltech, 2005)
- ASSC-10 (Oxford, 2006)
Mind and Life Institute
- Public Meeting with the Dalai Lama (M.I.T., 2003)
- Public Meeting with the Dalai Lama (Washington, D. C., 2005)