Three UW Researchers Present Results at 2005 AAAS Meeting

Three UW School of Medicine researchers gave presentations at the 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in Washington, D.C last week: William Calvin, a theoretical neurobiologist and affiliate professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences; Kristin Swanson, a research assistant professor of pathology; and Jennifer Stone, a research assistant professor in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery.

Calvin's presentation, "The Evolution of Human Minds: The Ice Age Emergence of Higher Intellectual Functions," focused on why bigger brains aren't necessarily smarter or better. According to Calvin, our ancestors went through long periods when toolmaking techniques didn't improve, despite a lot of brain size increase. The presentation was part of the anthropology symposium.

Calvin is the author of 12 books about brains and evolution. The most recent is titled "A Brief History of the Mind: From Apes to Intellect and Beyond."

Swanson's presentation was titled "Integration of Macroscopic Tumor Growth Modeling with Clinical Data" and was part of a symposium on mathematical oncology. Stone's presentation was titled "Hair Cell Regeneration in Non-Mammalian Vertebrates." It was part of a symposium on restoring damaged inner ear hair cells and their neural connections.