James Mason Bower (born February 17, 1954 in

Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence and Leeds) was 29,571. Northampton is known as an a ...

) is an American

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial ...

and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

and chairman of the Board of Numedeon Inc., creator of the

Whyville Whyville is an educational Internet site geared towards children from ages 8–14+ founded and managed by Numedeon, Inc. Whyville engages its users in learning about a broad range of topics, including science, business, art and geography. Whyvi ...

.net educational virtual world. He graduated from

McQuaid Jesuit High School McQuaid Jesuit High School is an all-male, Catholic, Jesuit, college preparatory school run by the USA Northeast Jesuit province of the Society of Jesus in the metropolitan area of Rochester, New York. The school is named Named after Bernard J. ...

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

attending

Antioch College Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was its ...

and

Montana State University Montana State University (MSU) is a public land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's largest university. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's degrees in 68 fields, and doctoral degrees in 35 fie ...

as an undergraduate and then received his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

in neurophysiology from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

, U.S. in 1982. From 1984 until 2001, he was a professor at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

and from 2001 until 2013 he was a professor at the

University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) is a public academic health science center in San Antonio, Texas. It is part of the University of Texas System. UT Health San Antonio is the largest health scie ...

. At present he is a professor at

Southern Oregon University Southern Oregon University (SOU) is a public university in Ashland, Oregon. It was founded in 1872 as the Ashland Academy, has been in its current location since 1926, and was known by nine other names before assuming its current name in 1997.Kre ...

and the Executive Director of the Pacific Division of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

Scientific research

His core scientific research involves computational studies designed to uncover structure / function relations in cortical structures of the

mammalian Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fu ...

brain, including both those associated with the

olfactory system The olfactory system, or sense of smell, is the sensory system used for smelling ( olfaction). Olfaction is one of the special senses, that have directly associated specific organs. Most mammals and reptiles have a main olfactory system and an ...

, and the

cerebellum The cerebellum (Latin for "little brain") is a major feature of the hindbrain of all vertebrates. Although usually smaller than the cerebrum, in some animals such as the mormyrid fishes it may be as large as or even larger. In humans, the cerebe ...

. His laboratory uses a wide range of experimental and model based techniques and has pioneered the use of realistic modeling in

computational neuroscience Computational neuroscience (also known as theoretical neuroscience or mathematical neuroscience) is a branch of neuroscience which employs mathematical models, computer simulations, theoretical analysis and abstractions of the brain to u ...

,. Bower's former students are now found in scientific institutions around the world

Scientific infrastructure

He has also been involved in numerous science infrastructure efforts, including establishing and maintaining the

GENESIS (software) GENESIS (The ''General Neural Simulation System'') is a simulation environment for constructing realistic models of neurobiological systems at many levels of scale including: sub-cellular processes, individual neurons, networks of neurons, and ne ...

simulation system. He has also been involved in establishing a number of conferences and meetings, including in 1987 co-founding the Conference on

Neural Information Processing Systems The Conference and Workshop on Neural Information Processing Systems (abbreviated as NeurIPS and formerly NIPS) is a machine learning and computational neuroscience conference held every December. The conference is currently a double-track meet ...

(NIPS), Co-founding and directing with

Christof Koch Christof Koch ( ; born November 13, 1956) is a German-American neurophysiologist and computational neuroscientist best known for his work on the neural basis of consciousness. He is the president and chief scientist of the Allen Institute for B ...

for its first 5 years the Methods in Computational Neuroscience Course at the

Marine Biological Laboratory The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent ...

Woods Hole, Massachusetts Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 781 ...

, starting the European Union's Methods in Computational Neuroscience Course, and also helping to organize the first Latin American Course for Computational Neuroscience (LASCON). He was also one of the founding editors of the Journal of

Computational Neuroscience Computational neuroscience (also known as theoretical neuroscience or mathematical neuroscience) is a branch of neuroscience which employs mathematical models, computer simulations, theoretical analysis and abstractions of the brain to u ...

, and the Annual International Meeting in Computational Neuroscience which he directed from 1991 to 2001 and again in 2010.

Efforts in education

Bower has been involved in educational reform efforts since he was President of the Teen League of

Rochester (NY) Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

as a high school student from 1970 - 1971. While at Caltech, he founded and co-directed with his Caltech colleague Jerry Pine Project SEED and then the Caltech Precollege Science Initiative (CAPSI). He has been a member of numerous national advisory groups on education, including within the National Research Council of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

, the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

and the

Society for Neuroscience The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is a professional society, headquartered in Washington, DC, for basic scientists and physicians around the world whose research is focused on the study of the brain and nervous system. It is especially well kn ...

. He is regarded as one of the leading innovators in on-line game based learning and education., as one of the founders of Whyville.net, a recognized innovator in online simulation and game-based learning. 22 years after its founding, Whyville remains one of the top rated learning websites for children.

Business efforts

Bower is CEO and chairman of the Board of Numedeon Inc. a company he founded in 1998 to develop educationally related

virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities ...

s. The company's flagship effort,

.net is now one of the largest education sites for young adults on the World Wide Web, with a player base of more than 7 million in 2006.

has been particularly successful in attracting young teens.

continues to be one of the leading sites for innovation in game-based learning design Because many of Whyville's citizens have stayed active users of the site for many years Whyville has had significant impact on their lives and careers. In 2015, he founded and became CEO of Virtual Worlds IP Inc.

Publications

*''The Book of GENESIS: Exploring Realistic Neural Models with the GEneral NEural SImulation System'',

Springer Verlag Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 i ...

, (1998), *''Computational Modeling of Genetic and Biochemical Networks'',

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publ ...

, (2004), *"Rethinking the Lesser Brain",

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...

, August 2003. *''20 Years of Computational Neuroscience'',

Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...

, (2013),

References

External links

The Bower Laboratory HomepageNumedeon Inc. HomepageWhyville.net Homepage GENESIS Distribution and Support SiteBower's Blog on Educational Game Development
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bower, James M. American neuroscientists Living people 1954 births American educators American technology company founders Web designers