Campus Life

Dr. Artur Luczak elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists

While he’s recently received media attention for his paper on choking self-treatment published in the journal Resuscitation, Dr. Artur Luczak, a University of Lethbridge neuroscience professor, typically receives attention for his research into neural activity in the sensory cortex.

Luczak has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. The College is the first national system of multidisciplinary recognition for the emerging generation of Canadian intellectual leadership. Members have demonstrated a high level of achievement at an early age in their career.

“Neuroscience is a fantastic journey of discoveries and I really enjoy taking a part in it,” says Luczak, who is currently working on an epilepsy project at Stanford University. “It is a great honour for me to be recognized by the RSC but I owe it to many people I have worked with.”

“Artur’s hard work has led to many worthwhile academic accomplishments and I was happy to nominate him,” says U of L President Mike Mahon. “I’m very pleased he has been elected to the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.”

As part of the Lethbridge Brain Dynamics group at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, Luczak’s has determined through his research that information in the brain’s cortex is not processed continuously but in discrete packets. Some neurons, whether spontaneously or in response to a stimulus, are active early and others are active later. Taken together, their activity forms a packet filled with information. He proposes the packets allow the brain to integrate and exchange information throughout all brain areas.

Luczak is also involved in promoting brain research as president of the Lethbridge Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience. His expertise in computational neuroscience gives students the opportunity to use statistics and programming techniques in neuroscience.

Luczak’s website has more information about his research work.

Anyone who wants to know more about the College and its annual nomination process is invited to attend a workshop on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at the U of L. Dr. Alidad Amirfazli, president of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, will be on hand to explain the process.