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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 29, 2005

Contact: Lisa Merkl
713.743.8192 (office)
713.605.1757 (pager)

HOUSTON, June 29, 2005 – Strides in vision research employing neuro-engineering and computational neuroscience earned one University of Houston engineering professor a coveted spot in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) peer review group.

Haluk Ogmen, department chair and professor of electrical and computer engineering at UH, has been invited to serve as a member of the NIH Central Visual Processing (CVP) Study Section, Center for Scientific Review (CSR). His four-year term begins July 1, 2005.

“This opportunity will allow Ogmen to contribute to the national biomedical research effort in reviewing and making recommendations on grant applications submitted to NIH,” said Arthur C. Vailas, vice chancellor and vice president for UH System and the UH Office of Research and Intellectual Property Management. “He was selected because of his achievements in his discipline, the quality of his research accomplishments and record of his scientific journal publications. He now will play a noteworthy role in surveying the status of research in the field of CVP science.”

The CSR organizes peer review groups that evaluate a majority of the research grant applications sent to NIH with its primary goal to ensure that each application receives fair, independent, expert and timely review so that NIH can fund the most promising research. With more than 170 study sections, the CSR brings together a number of experts to make funding recommendations based on priorities set by Congress and The Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the public. Support from the scientific community is critical to this peer review system to identify research that is in the best interest of advancing public health and to assure the quality of the process.

Members of the CVP Study Section review basic, applied and clinical research on development, aging, structure, function and disorders associated with portions of the brain, eye and extraocular muscle system that deal with brightness, color, space and form, motion, depth, accommodation, pupil contraction and eye movements. Studies range broadly from those that examine visual neurosensory disorders to those that provide a better understanding of normal vision.

As director of the Center for Neuro-Engineering and Cognitive Science (CNECS) at UH, Ogmen believes that engineers first must understand the brain at a functional level so that resulting designs or inventions can be flexible in light of existing constraints. Founded in 1996 in response to the emerging area of cognitive science and to encourage interdisciplinary connections, the CNECS examines three major research areas – brain wave analysis, visual perception, and cognition and behavior. Projects underway include those dealing with neonatal seizures, schizophrenia and severe neuromuscular impairments.

Ogmen received his B.Sc.A. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Universite Laval in Quebec, Canada. He joined UH in 1988 and currently works on two major research programs – one on “Neural Correlates of Moving Boundary Reception” in collaboration with Harold Bedell, a professor in the College of Optometry, with funding from the National Institutes of Health, and the other on “Temporal Dynamics of Unconscious and Conscious Perception in Visual Processing” in collaboration with Bruno Breitmeyer, a professor from the department of psychology, with funding from the National Science Foundation. He also spent a year at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco as a visiting scientist. Ogmen’s multidisciplinary approach breaks new ground in neuro-engineering, each year deepening his understanding of the brain. His work continues to lay the foundation for developing new technologies that may transform the way doctors diagnose and treat mental illnesses, as well as provide promise for creating artificial intelligence that more closely mirrors the human mind.

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