The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communicative Disorders (NIDCD) has announced it will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this coming October with a symposium highlighting two decades of scientific research accomplishments achieved with its support. The program is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Natcher Conference Center on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.
The symposium scheduled for October 8, 2008, will consist of three sessions representing NIDCD’s primary areas of research: hearing and balance; smell and taste; and voice, speech, and language. The tentative agenda includes NIDCD advisory council member Karen Cruickshanks, PhD, professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin, who will speak on NIDCD’s public health impact.
In addition, John Niparko, MD, professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and David Corey, PhD, professor of neurobiology at Harvard University, will speak on hearing and balance research.
Gary Beauchamp, PhD, director of the Monell Chemical Senses Center, and Richard Axel, MD, of Columbia University, a recipient of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research on the sense of smell, will speak on smell and taste research.
Robert Remez, PhD, professor of psychology at Columbia University, and Helen Tager-Flusberg, PhD, professor of anatomy and neurobiology and psychology at Boston University School of Medicine, will speak on voice, speech, and language research.
Plans are also underway to include music and performances highlighting areas of communication covered by NIDCD.
Expected attendees include NIH staff members, scientists from around the country, advocacy organization members, congressional representatives, and news media members. NIDCD will be posting registration information on its Web site soon.
Source: The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communicative Disorders
