This special OSHER@Dartmouth lecture, by an internationally acclaimed research scientist and teacher, will examine how the brain constructs what we see when looking at the most compelling of visual illusions: art, where impressions of depth and light arise from nothing more than pigments on a flat surface. The speaker will show how to use art and illusions to do "science by looking," unlocking the basic rules of the visual brain that were discovered by artists.

Patrick Cavanagh is a Senior Research Fellow at Glendon College, York University in Ontario, Canada and a Dartmouth College Research Professor. He has pioneered new directions in brain research including using art to reveal new data sources for neuroscience. A Canadian native, he holds an undergraduate engineering degree from McGill University and a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Carnegie-Mellon University. He previously was a professor at the University of Montreal, Harvard University and the University of Paris. He has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Montreal and was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Free and open to the public.