Allan Whitenack Snyder (born 1942) is the director of the Centre for the Mind at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

, Australia where he also holds the 150th Anniversary Chair of Science and the Mind. He is a co-founder of

Emotiv Systems Emotiv Systems is an Australian electronics innovation company developing technologies to evolve human computer interaction incorporating non-conscious cues into the human-computer dialog to emulate human to human interaction. Developing brain� ...

and winner of the International Australia Prize in 1997 and the

Marconi Prize The Marconi Prize is an annual award recognizing achievements and advancements made in field of communications (radio, mobile, wireless, telecommunications, data communications, networks, and Internet). The prize is awarded by the Marconi Society ...

in 2001 for his contributions to optical physics. Snyder is also the Creator and Chairman of the ''What Makes a Champion?'' forum, an official Olympic cultural event first held at the Sydney 2000

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

. He is also the Chair of Research on the MindChamps World Research, Advisory and Education Team, with a focus on neuroscience. Snyder's research career began in

optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics (AMO) is the study of matter-matter and light-matter interactions; at the scale of one or a few atoms and energy scales around several electron volts. The three areas are closely interrelated. AMO theory in ...

. More recently, he has worked on mind sciences. He has appeared on television demonstrating how

transcranial magnetic stimulation Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive form of brain stimulation in which a changing magnetic field is used to induce an electric current at a specific area of the brain through electromagnetic induction. An electric pulse gener ...

to the left

temporal lobe The temporal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The temporal lobe is located beneath the lateral fissure on both cerebral hemispheres of the mammalian brain. The temporal lobe is involved in pro ...

can induce

savant Savant syndrome () is a rare condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average. The skills that savants excel at are generally related to memory. This may include rapid calcu ...

-like skills.

Savant hypothesis

Snyder is interested in understanding

savants Savant syndrome () is a rare condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average. The skills that savants excel at are generally related to memory. This may include rapid calcu ...

. In savants, according to Snyder, the top layer of mental processing—conceptual thinking, making logical deductions—is somehow deactivated. His working hypothesis is that once this layer is inactivated, there is a capacity for recalling the minute detail or for performing lightning-quick calculations. He believes it may be possible someday to create technologies that will allow any non-autistic person to access these abilities.

Awards

He won the

Harrie Massey Medal and Prize The Institute of Physics awards numerous prizes to acknowledge contributions to physics research, education and applications. It also offers smaller specific subject-group prizes, such as for PhD thesis submissions. Bilateral awards * The Max ...

in 1996. In December 2001 he received the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1990 and is the recipient of their 2001 Clifford Paterson Prize. Previously, he was a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the a ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

’s School of Medicine and a Royal Society Research Fellow at the Physiology Laboratories of

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

. He is a graduate of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

and

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

Education

Snyder has a DSc from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, a PhD from University College (1969), London, an MS from Harvard University (1967), an SM from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1965) and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University (1963), University Park.

Centre for the Mind

The Centre for the Mind is the brainchild of Allan Snyder, and was launched at the

Museum of Sydney The Museum of Sydney is a historical collection and exhibit, built on the ruins of the house of New South Wales' first Governor, Arthur Phillip, on the present-day corner of Phillip and Bridge Street, Sydney. Description The original house, ...

on 4 August 1997;

Oliver Sacks Oliver Wolf Sacks, (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in Britain, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford, before moving to the Uni ...

delivered the Foundation Lecture on "Creativity and the Mind" at the public opening on 5 August 1997, at the

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soc ...

. The inaugural Centre for the Mind board members were: *Allan Snyder * Gavin Brown *

Peter Karmel Peter Henry Karmel (9 May 192230 December 2008) was an Australian economist and professor. He chaired the Interim Committee for the Australian Schools Commission that produced the report ''Schools in Australia'' in 1973. Biography Karmel was ...

* Lachlan Murdoch *

Baz Luhrmann Mark Anthony Luhrmann (born 17 September 1962), known professionally as Baz Luhrmann, is an Australian film director, producer, writer and actor. With projects spanning film, television, opera, theatre, music and recording industries, he is re ...

Distinguished Medal recipients: * Daniel Dennett *

Horace Barlow Horace Basil Barlow FRS (8 December 1921 – 5 July 2020) was a British vision scientist. Life Barlow was the son of the civil servant Sir Alan Barlow and his wife Lady Nora (granddaughter of the naturalist Charles Darwin). He was educated ...

Vilayanur Ramachandran Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran (born 10 August 1951) is an Indian-American neuroscientist. He is known for his wide-ranging experiments and theories in behavioral neurology, including the invention of the mirror box. Ramachandran is a disti ...

* Richard Branson

Mission

"We explore what it is to be uniquely human. We do this by investing in challenging research, by orchestrating spectacular intellectual events, and by acting as a global nexus for great minds. Our mind laboratories focus on scientific ways to enhance creativity and to instill the champion mindset."Centre for the Mind; Who We Are
/ref>

References

External links

University of Sydney

Centre for the MindWhat Makes a Champion?

London Science Museum

Is integer arithmetic fundamental to mental processing?: the mind's secret arithmetic.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snyder, Allan 1940 births Living people Harvard University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Alumni of University College London Fellows of the Royal Society Australia Prize recipients Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Optical physicists