Brock Kirwan has been announced to serve as the inaugural executive director of the new MindCORE Neuroimaging Facility at Pennovation Works.
Kirwan was previously a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and the director of the MRI Research Facility at Brigham Young University. The MindCORE Neuroimaging Facility, which will open this spring, will provide facilities and equipment to support scholarly campus, according to the announcement on April 23.
Kirwan's research focuses on brain mechanisms responsible for retaining long-term memories and guiding future decision-making. He has also taught over 18 different courses in neuroscience and psychology-related fields.
The MindCORE Neuroimaging Facility was established by the School of Arts and Sciences under Mapping the Mind as an initiative dedicated to analyzing the relationship between brain activity, human intelligence, and decision-making. The interdisciplinary initiative aims to deepen understanding at both individual and group levels, exploring social behavior, decision-making, and neuroeconomics.
Committed to complex research, the new Neuroimaging Facility will include a Siemens Magnetom Cima.X 3T MRI scanner. Among other technologies, this device will help department researchers execute the mission of understanding human intelligence and brain activity patterns and their relationship to complex behavior.
After an international pursuit to fill the position, a committee of directors and faculty members in the psychology department expressed their support for appointing Kirwan.
“His extensive research, teaching, and service experience with human neuroimaging makes him an ideal leader for this facility, as we expand what we can discover about the human brain through powerful new tools,” committee chair and MindCORE faculty director Joseph Kable said in the announcement.
After its official opening in the spring, the facility will host an open house for the Penn community to visit and learn about the research and available tools.
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