News

We are pleased to announce that Professor Greg DeAngelis, a professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and a visual neuroscientist at the University of Rochester, has been honored with the title of academician of the World Academy of Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) for his groundbreaking research in the fields of depth perception, stereovision, and conscious perception.

Professor DeAngelis has long been dedicated to uncovering how the brain processes stereoscopic visual information, proposing the “motion disparity” model, which emphasizes the influence of self-motion on depth perception. His research has shown that neurons in the MT area of the monkey brain respond to binocular disparity and contribute to the formation of stereoscopic depth perception. Additionally, his team discovered that neurons in the monkey MT area integrate visual motion and eye movement signals to perceive depth through motion disparity, providing critical insights into how the brain processes three-dimensional information.

• Global Collaboration and Academic Ecosystem

Academicians of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness hail from institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, the French Academy of Sciences, the University of Padua, the University of Queensland, Columbia University, and the University of Exeter. Honorary Academicians come from a wide range of countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Spain, and China. In addition, leading scientists from prominent research institutes and technology companies—such as Google, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and ZEEKR—also participate.

• About WAAC

The World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (https://www.waac.ac/) is a global academic institution established in Paris in 2025. Its mission is to advance frontier research and international collaboration in artificial consciousness through the integration of science, technology, and philosophy. The Academy publishes open research, policy recommendations, evaluation standards, and more. The current President is Academician Yucong Duan, and the Secretary-General is Dr. Yingbo Li. The Honorary Academician List: On May 3, 2025, WAAC released its first batch of Top 100 Honorary Academicians, recognizing scholars who have made foundational or leading contributions to the theory of artificial consciousness.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Erkki Oja, a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Aalto University and recipient of the IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award, has been honored with the title of academician of the World Academy of Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) for his groundbreaking research in independent component analysis (ICA) and Hebbian learning rules.

Professor Oja has long been dedicated to research in the fields of neural networks and machine learning. He proposed the famous “Oja’s learning rule,” an improved version of the standard Hebbian learning rule, which solves stability issues through multiplicative normalization and provides a computational model for principal component analysis (PCA). Additionally, Professor Oja and his collaborators introduced an independent component analysis method based on a general nonlinear Hebbian learning rule, offering new perspectives in the fields of blind source separation and signal processing.

• Global Collaboration and Academic Ecosystem

Academicians of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness hail from institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, the French Academy of Sciences, the University of Padua, the University of Queensland, Columbia University, and the University of Exeter. Honorary Academicians come from a wide range of countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Spain, and China. In addition, leading scientists from prominent research institutes and technology companies—such as Google, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and ZEEKR—also participate.

• About WAAC

The World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (https://www.waac.ac/) is a global academic institution established in Paris in 2025. Its mission is to advance frontier research and international collaboration in artificial consciousness through the integration of science, technology, and philosophy. The Academy publishes open research, policy recommendations, evaluation standards, and more. The current President is Academician Yucong Duan, and the Secretary-General is Dr. Yingbo Li. The Honorary Academician List: On May 3, 2025, WAAC released its first batch of Top 100 Honorary Academicians, recognizing scholars who have made foundational or leading contributions to the theory of artificial consciousness.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Giacomo Indiveri, a professor at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, and the director of the Institute of Neuroinformatics (INI), has been honored with the title of academician of the World Academy of Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) for his groundbreaking research in neuromorphic computing, brain-inspired hardware, and clues to artificial consciousness.

Professor Indiveri has long been dedicated to building brain-like computational systems, proposing neuromorphic processors based on spiking neural networks (SNN) and event-driven architectures, aimed at achieving low-power, high-performance artificial intelligence systems. His research has not only advanced the field of neuromorphic engineering but also provided new perspectives on understanding the neural mechanisms of consciousness.

• Global Collaboration and Academic Ecosystem

Academicians of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness hail from institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, the French Academy of Sciences, the University of Padua, the University of Queensland, Columbia University, and the University of Exeter. Honorary Academicians come from a wide range of countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Spain, and China. In addition, leading scientists from prominent research institutes and technology companies—such as Google, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and ZEEKR—also participate.

• About WAAC

The World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (https://www.waac.ac/) is a global academic institution established in Paris in 2025. Its mission is to advance frontier research and international collaboration in artificial consciousness through the integration of science, technology, and philosophy. The Academy publishes open research, policy recommendations, evaluation standards, and more. The current President is Academician Yucong Duan, and the Secretary-General is Dr. Yingbo Li. The Honorary Academician List: On May 3, 2025, WAAC released its first batch of Top 100 Honorary Academicians, recognizing scholars who have made foundational or leading contributions to the theory of artificial consciousness.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi of the Institut Pasteur in France, recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, has been honored with the title of academician of the World Academy of Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) for her pioneering contributions to research on HIV (human immunodeficiency virus).

In 1983, Professor Barré-Sinoussi first isolated HIV from the lymph nodes of patients with AIDS, laying the groundwork for the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Her research not only advanced early detection methods for HIV but also provided a scientific basis for the development of antiretroviral therapies. Beyond her laboratory work, Professor Barré-Sinoussi has been deeply engaged in global HIV/AIDS prevention and control, with a particular focus on fostering research collaboration and capacity building in resource-limited settings. She has served as president of the International AIDS Society (IAS) and has held key roles on multiple international scientific committees.

• Global Collaboration and Academic Ecosystem

Academicians of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness hail from institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, the French Academy of Sciences, the University of Padua, the University of Queensland, Columbia University, and the University of Exeter. Honorary Academicians come from a wide range of countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Spain, and China. In addition, leading scientists from prominent research institutes and technology companies—such as Google, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and ZEEKR—also participate.

• About WAAC

The World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (https://www.waac.ac/) is a global academic institution established in Paris in 2025. Its mission is to advance frontier research and international collaboration in artificial consciousness through the integration of science, technology, and philosophy. The Academy publishes open research, policy recommendations, evaluation standards, and more. The current President is Academician Yucong Duan, and the Secretary-General is Dr. Yingbo Li. The Honorary Academician List: On May 3, 2025, WAAC released its first batch of Top 100 Honorary Academicians, recognizing scholars who have made foundational or leading contributions to the theory of artificial consciousness.

We are pleased to announce that Ezequiel Morsella, professor of psychology at San Francisco State University and a scholar of consciousness and action control, has been elected an academician of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) for his foundational work on Passive Frame Theory (PFT), the mechanisms by which conscious contents are generated, and the role of consciousness in voluntary action selection.

Over many years, Professor Morsella has used a combined theoretical and experimental approach to systematically reveal the “passive yet necessary” role of consciousness in the selection of voluntary skeletomotor actions. Presented as a target article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, his formulation and synthesis of PFT offers a new integrative framework for clarifying the functional boundaries and implementation mechanisms of consciousness. Meanwhile, public- and campus-facing research communications from his team have showcased evidence that complex ideas can enter consciousness involuntarily, further supporting the view that conscious contents can be generated automatically.

• Global Collaboration and Academic Ecosystem

Academicians of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness hail from institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, the French Academy of Sciences, the University of Padua, the University of Queensland, Columbia University, and the University of Exeter. Honorary Academicians come from a wide range of countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Spain, and China. In addition, leading scientists from prominent research institutes and technology companies—such as Google, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and ZEEKR—also participate.

• About WAAC

The World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (https://www.waac.ac/) is a global academic institution established in Paris in 2025. Its mission is to advance frontier research and international collaboration in artificial consciousness through the integration of science, technology, and philosophy. The Academy publishes open research, policy recommendations, evaluation standards, and more. The current President is Academician Yucong Duan, and the Secretary-General is Dr. Yingbo Li. The Honorary Academician List: On May 3, 2025, WAAC released its first batch of Top 100 Honorary Academicians, recognizing scholars who have made foundational or leading contributions to the theory of artificial consciousness.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Étienne Koechlin, a cognitive neuroscientist at École Normale Supérieure (PSL), has been elected an academician of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) for his foundational research on hierarchical control in the prefrontal cortex, rule–value integration, and conscious planning.

Over many years, Professor Koechlin has combined theory with human neuroimaging to propose a cascade architecture of lateral prefrontal executive control: a posterior-to-anterior hierarchy along the rostro–caudal axis in which successively anterior regions regulate behavior according to stimuli, context, and temporal episodes. This framework established the neural basis of modern research on “hierarchical control.” He subsequently used an information-theoretic approach to characterize how executive functions integrate information across multiple prefrontal subdivisions to achieve unified action selection. In recent work, his team has revealed how the prefrontal cortex integrates reward expectations and beliefs under uncertainty to guide human decision-making.

• Global Collaboration and Academic Ecosystem

Academicians of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness hail from institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, the French Academy of Sciences, the University of Padua, the University of Queensland, Columbia University, and the University of Exeter. Honorary Academicians come from a wide range of countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Spain, and China. In addition, leading scientists from prominent research institutes and technology companies—such as Google, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and ZEEKR—also participate.

• About WAAC

The World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (https://www.waac.ac/) is a global academic institution established in Paris in 2025. Its mission is to advance frontier research and international collaboration in artificial consciousness through the integration of science, technology, and philosophy. The Academy publishes open research, policy recommendations, evaluation standards, and more. The current President is Academician Yucong Duan, and the Secretary-General is Dr. Yingbo Li. The Honorary Academician List: On May 3, 2025, WAAC released its first batch of Top 100 Honorary Academicians, recognizing scholars who have made foundational or leading contributions to the theory of artificial consciousness.

We are pleased to announce that Cathy Price, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL’s Queen Square Institute of Neurology and a Fellow of the Royal Society, has been elected an academician of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) for her foundational contributions to the language network and reading mechanisms, the PLORAS framework for predicting post-stroke language recovery, and the neural basis of conscious comprehension.

Over many years, Professor Price has used large-sample neuroimaging and clinical datasets to reveal organizational principles of the human brain’s language network, and she founded the PLORAS project, pioneering methods that predict aphasia recovery trajectories from a single structural scan combined with clinical variables. Related reviews and methodological papers have systematically summarized key evidence and challenges—for example, “Predicting Language Outcome and Recovery After Stroke” and “The PLORAS Database.” Her earlier highly cited reviews integrated imaging evidence on speech perception, speech production, and reading, providing a robust foundation for network-based mechanisms of conscious understanding.

• Global Collaboration and Academic Ecosystem

Academicians of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness hail from institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, the French Academy of Sciences, the University of Padua, the University of Queensland, Columbia University, and the University of Exeter. Honorary Academicians come from a wide range of countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Spain, and China. In addition, leading scientists from prominent research institutes and technology companies—such as Google, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and ZEEKR—also participate.

• About WAAC

The World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (https://www.waac.ac/) is a global academic institution established in Paris in 2025. Its mission is to advance frontier research and international collaboration in artificial consciousness through the integration of science, technology, and philosophy. The Academy publishes open research, policy recommendations, evaluation standards, and more. The current President is Academician Yucong Duan, and the Secretary-General is Dr. Yingbo Li. The Honorary Academician List: On May 3, 2025, WAAC released its first batch of Top 100 Honorary Academicians, recognizing scholars who have made foundational or leading contributions to the theory of artificial consciousness.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Geraint Rees, Vice-Provost of UCL, has been elected an academician of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) for his foundational contributions to the neural mechanisms of conscious contents and attention, brain networks, and computational decoding.

Over many years, Professor Rees has used functional imaging (fMRI) and multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to systematically reveal the neural correlates of visual consciousness, while advancing both the methodology and ethical discourse surrounding “brain readout/mind decoding.” His work has laid an important foundation for data-driven characterization linking conscious representations, large-scale brain networks, and computable readouts. Beyond basic research, Professor Rees has played key roles in academic governance and the innovation ecosystem, and has spearheaded initiatives that promote cross-disciplinary translation and international partnerships at the scientific frontier.

• Global Collaboration and Academic Ecosystem

Academicians of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness hail from institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, the French Academy of Sciences, the University of Padua, the University of Queensland, Columbia University, and the University of Exeter. Honorary Academicians come from a wide range of countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Spain, and China. In addition, leading scientists from prominent research institutes and technology companies—such as Google, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and ZEEKR—also participate.

• About WAAC

The World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (https://www.waac.ac/) is a global academic institution established in Paris in 2025. Its mission is to advance frontier research and international collaboration in artificial consciousness through the integration of science, technology, and philosophy. The Academy publishes open research, policy recommendations, evaluation standards, and more. The current President is Academician Yucong Duan, and the Secretary-General is Dr. Yingbo Li. The Honorary Academician List: On May 3, 2025, WAAC released its first batch of Top 100 Honorary Academicians, recognizing scholars who have made foundational or leading contributions to the theory of artificial consciousness.

We are pleased to announce that Professor H. Robert Horvitz has been elected an academician of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) for his foundational contributions to programmed cell death (apoptosis) and neural/developmental genetics in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans).

Over many years, the Horvitz laboratory used C. elegans to establish the canonical genetic pathway of programmed cell death: ced-3 and ced-4 are essential for cell death, whereas ced-9 acts anti-apoptotically; subsequent work showed that egl-1 initiates cell death by inhibiting CED-9, releasing CED-4, and thereby activating CED-3. This pathway provided the genetic blueprint for the mammalian BCL-2–APAF-1–caspase system. These discoveries not only elucidated the molecular basis of development and the sculpting of neural circuits, but also opened new avenues for research on cancer, immunity, and neurodegenerative diseases.

• Global Collaboration and Academic Ecosystem

Academicians of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness hail from institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, the French Academy of Sciences, the University of Padua, the University of Queensland, Columbia University, and the University of Exeter. Honorary Academicians come from a wide range of countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Spain, and China. In addition, leading scientists from prominent research institutes and technology companies—such as Google, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and ZEEKR—also participate.

• About WAAC

The World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (https://www.waac.ac/) is a global academic institution established in Paris in 2025. Its mission is to advance frontier research and international collaboration in artificial consciousness through the integration of science, technology, and philosophy. The Academy publishes open research, policy recommendations, evaluation standards, and more. The current President is Academician Yucong Duan, and the Secretary-General is Dr. Yingbo Li. The Honorary Academician List: On May 3, 2025, WAAC released its first batch of Top 100 Honorary Academicians, recognizing scholars who have made foundational or leading contributions to the theory of artificial consciousness.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Ehud Ahissar, a professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, has been awarded the honor of being elected as an academician of the World Academy of Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) for his outstanding contributions to the fields of tactile perception, active perception mechanisms, and perceptual embodiment theory.

Professor Ahissar has long been dedicated to researching the closed-loop mechanisms of perception, proposing that perception is not only an internal process of the brain but is also closely related to bodily movements and interactions with the environment. He emphasizes that perception is an embodiment of the interaction between the body and the environment. His research findings are of significant importance for understanding the mechanisms of perception and the formation of consciousness.

• Global Collaboration and Academic Ecosystem

Academicians of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness hail from institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, the French Academy of Sciences, the University of Padua, the University of Queensland, Columbia University, and the University of Exeter. Honorary Academicians come from a wide range of countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Spain, and China. In addition, leading scientists from prominent research institutes and technology companies—such as Google, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and ZEEKR—also participate.

• About WAAC

The World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (https://www.waac.ac/) is a global academic institution established in Paris in 2025. Its mission is to advance frontier research and international collaboration in artificial consciousness through the integration of science, technology, and philosophy. The Academy publishes open research, policy recommendations, evaluation standards, and more. The current President is Academician Yucong Duan, and the Secretary-General is Dr. Yingbo Li. The Honorary Academician List: On May 3, 2025, WAAC released its first batch of Top 100 Honorary Academicians, recognizing scholars who have made foundational or leading contributions to the theory of artificial consciousness.