The Merson Lecture

The annual lecture is named in honour of Dr David Merson, who supported the series in order to promulgate the best neuroscience research and what it has to offer the community in the future. It is given by a prominent, internationally leading neuroscientist whose research is of relevance to laboratories at QBI.

Dr Merson is the founder and ex-CEO of Mincom Limited. Since retiring, he has become director of a range of organisations and charitable institutions. He is a member of QBI’s Advisory Board and was the inaugural Chair of the QBI Development Board. His philanthropic sponsorship of this lecture is indicative of a strong community interest in neuroscience and the inspiring research that is being done in the area of neurological and mental diseases.

Past sessions

Merson Lecture 2024: Tools for analysing and repairing the brain

22 May 2024 5:00pm–6:00pm

in The Merson Lecture

Professor Ed Boyden develops tools for analysing and repairing the brain and systematically applies them to enable comprehensive understandings of neural circuits, yielding new insight into potential treatment strategies for brain diseases.

Merson Lecture 2023: The Neurobiology of Depression

23 March 2023 5:00pm–7:00pm

in The Merson Lecture

Merson Lecture 2021: Professor Hugh Possingham

3 November 2021 5:00pm–6:00pm

in The Merson Lecture

Queensland Chief Scientist Professor Hugh Possingham will discuss the demands of communicating research to policy-makers - challenges that face both health and conservation - at this year's Merson Lecture.

Merson Lecture 2018: Professor Michelle Simmons

24 October 2018 5:00pm–7:00pm

in The Merson Lecture

Merson Lecture 2017: Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel AO

24 October 2017 5:00pm–6:00pm

in The Merson Lecture

Australia's Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel AO will give the 2017 Merson Lecture

Merson Lecture 2016: A deep dive into deep learning

26 October 2016 5:00pm–7:15pm

in The Merson Lecture

Professor Terrence Sejnowski, Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Francis Crick Professor at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies and a Distinguished Professor at the University of California at San Diego

Merson Lecture 2014: Developing better treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease: the long and short of it

6 November 2014 5:00pm–7:00pm

in The Merson Lecture

Dr Lennart Mucke, MD, Director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco

Merson Lecture 2013: Cortical Interneurons, Creation, Wiring and Disease

7 November 2013 5:00pm

in The Merson Lecture

Professor Gordon Fishell, Julius Raynes Professor of Neuroscience and Physiology at NYU School of Medicine and associate director of the NYU Neuroscience Institute.

Merson Lecture 2012: Brain wiring and brain disorders

7 August 2012 5:00pm

in The Merson Lecture

Professor Mriganka Sur, Newton Professor of Neuroscience, Director of the Simons Center for the Social Brain, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA.

Merson Lecture 2011: The Emotional Brain

11 October 2011 5:00pm

in The Merson Lecture

Joseph LeDoux is a University Professor and Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science, and a member of the Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology at NYU.

Merson Lecture 2010: Development and maintenance of neuronal polarity

28 October 2010 5:00pm

in The Merson Lecture

Professor Mu-ming Poo Director of the Institute of Neuroscience, CAS, in Shanghai, Paul Licht Distinguished Professor in Biology in the Division of Neurobiology (Department of Molecular and Cell Biology) at the University of California, Berkeley.