State of Play VI: Speakers' Bios

Profile

Whyville.net, one of the most popular educational web sites for children, with 2.2 million registered users. Whyville is the leading educational virtual world for children ages 8 - 15.  It was launched in 1999 by Numedeon, Inc. to apply over 17 years of research in education and cooperative learning to develop an innovative environment for engaging children in constructive and engaging activities on the web.

Aside from Whyville, Numedeon’s proprietary software also powers a virtual campus for the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio (UTHSCSA). UTHSCSA-Virtual supports scientists and medical professionals in their collaborations both locally and at a distance.

Bower was a professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for 17 years. His scientific research focuses on the cerebellum and the mammalian olfactory system and employs a variety of experimental and computational techniques. His laboratory invented the neural-simulation system GENESIS and pioneered techniques in multi-single-unit neuronal recording. He has a longstanding interest and involvement in science education at all levels, having founded several international courses in computational neuroscience and established annual computational neuroscience meetings.

Dr. Bower has also been involved in educational reform efforts since he was President of the Teen League of Rochester (NY) as a high school student from 1970 - 1971. While at Caltech, he founded and directed the Caltech Precollege Science Initiative (CAPSI). He has been a member of numerous national advisory groups on education, including within the National Research Council of the National Academy of Science, the National Science Foundation and the Society for Neuroscience.

He has published more than 100 scientific articles and has authored several books. Bower received a Ph.D. in neurophysiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.