Vilayanur RamachandranSpeaker and Booking Agent Information

Ramachandran's early research focused on visual recognition, but he is best known for his experiments on the social nervous system, which, despite their apparent ease, have had a significant impact on how we think about the mind.

By Richard Dawkins, he was referred to as the Marco Polo of neuroscience, and by Eric Kandel, he was referred to as the avant-garde Paul Broca. He received the Henry Dale Medal in 2005, and the Royal Institution of Great Britain selected him for privileged life membership.

He also delivered a Friday night presentation there (joining the positions of Michael Faraday Thomas Huxley Humphry Davy and many Nobel Laureates).

His numerous awards and honors include collaborations with Stanford University (Hilgard Visiting Professor) and All Souls College Oxford, as well as the Ariens-Kappers decoration from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and the Presidential Lecture Award from the American Academy of Neurology. He also holds two honorary doctorates.

He delivered the annual BBC Reith speeches in 2003 and was the first physician or analyst to do so since Bertrand Russell began doing so in 1949. At the Society for Neuroscience's 25th annual (Silver Jubilee) conference, he delivered the Decade of the Brain talk in 1995.

In 2010 he presented the yearly Jawaharlal Nehru dedication address in New Delhi India. Most recently, the President of India bestowed upon him the Padma Bhushan, India's second-highest honorable title and gift for non-military individuals. Additionally, he was listed as one of the 100 most persuasive people in the world by TIME magazine.