Neuroscientist new professor at UM

ORONO – Cognitive neuroscientist and clinical psychologist Herbert J. Weingartner will bring his extensive experience in mind-brain research to the University of Maine as the 2005-06 Shibles Distinguished Visiting Professor in the College of Education and Human Development.

An acclaimed researcher who has held top leadership positions at the National Institutes of Health, Weingartner will work with UM faculty to develop a blueprint for applying basic cognitive neuroscience knowledge to practical problems associated with development and education and to build an interdisciplinary approach to investigating psychological and neuroscience bases of human intelligence.

During his visits to UM over the next 18 months, Weingartner will work with faculty, students, educators and policymakers, according to Robert A. Cobb, dean of the college.

The cognitive neuroscience initiative within the college of education and human development focuses on emerging brain research and its implications for teaching and learning. Employing the latest in brain imaging technology, faculty researchers and students will observe cognitive functioning and development in children and adults, and determine what adaptations need to be made in pedagogy to effect growth and development of one’s cognitive abilities, Cobb explained.

The initiative will feature interdisciplinary approaches among faculty from child development, education, psychology and the biological sciences. External funding will be sought to support both basic and applied research.

“Dr. Weingartner will not only assist the campus in shaping interdisciplinary efforts, but also in helping UMaine become an active member of national networks in this field,” Cobb said.

The director of cognitive neuroscience programs at several National Institutes of Health institutes since 1977, Weingartner retired briefly last year, then returned to the NIH to create a program to train both junior and senior science fellows to become managers, facilitators and process leaders for large-scale interdisciplinary science projects.

He retains an academic association as professor of cognitive science with Johns Hopkins University where he earned a doctorate in experimental psychology and was a member of the faculty in the school of medicine.

Weingartner said he looked forward to working with faculty and students at UM and sharing some of his new interests that apply cognitive neuroscience knowledge in education and the workplace. Among these are using what is known about the learning process to improve translation and communication across science cultures, as well as with the public, and developing new strategies for enhancing learning, particularly in science and mathematics.

Another area of activity is to develop training that would enable teachers to be researchers, as well as practitioners.

“By researcher, I mean someone who can systematically consider and evaluate the effectiveness of his or her teaching,” Weingartner says. “The teacher-researcher also would learn to be comfortable in accessing and using new basic and applied knowledge relevant to teaching.”

An accomplished artist, Weingartner blends his love of science, writing and art to create stories and visual presentations as a context for expressing scientific ideas and brain science themes. Working in a variety of styles and mediums, Weingartner said he wants his paintings and drawings to help viewers access knowledge dismissed to some far corner of the mind and to rediscover the creative imagination that most children leave behind when they grow up.

Fleeing Nazi Germany and coming to New York as a child just months before the outbreak of World War II, Weingartner has used art to deal with his own early childhood experiences of fear and searching for safety.

“In both science and art we attempt to find and bring structure to the uncertainty in dealing with the problems before us,” he said. However, he has found that in order to successfully deal with problems in the present, individuals must appreciate their past along with their abilities.