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President of the AMCS

It is my great pleasure and privilege to welcome you to the newly formed Association for Mathematical Consciousness Science (AMCS). The AMCS grew out of an informal community of researchers who have been running conferences, seminars and workshops during the past several years, who view mathematical approaches to the understanding of consciousness as complementary and supportive of the scientific study of consciousness.

I would like to acknowledge and thank the AMCS founding members and, in particular, the Board –Johannes Kleiner (Chairman), Jonathan Mason (Vice Chairman), Robin Lorenz (Treasurer)– who have made the AMCS a reality.

Lenore Blum by Evan Nedyalkov

My own connection to the AMCS came about by a colleague alerting me to the MCS online seminars. Not only was this a godsend during lockdown, but it connected me with a warm, welcoming, passionate, international group of colleagues who exemplify a key AMCS’ goal: To encourage and support open-minded, unprejudiced, and non-dogmatic research on MCS while ensuring and advocating scientific quality, honesty and integrity.

It is an exciting time for consciousness studies, and I am honored and humbled to join you in AMCS contributing to this exciting endeavor. I would love to hear from you –and your suggestions– as the AMCS moves forward.

Sincerely,
Lenore Blum, Inaugural President, AMCS
lblum@cs.cmu.edu

Biography
Lenore Blum was elected as AMCS Inaugural President by the founding members on 2nd August 2021. Lenore has a strong interest in the AMCS having joined as a full member on 20 February 2021. Having graduated with a PhD in mathematics from MIT in 1968, Lenore is an American computer scientist and mathematician, and formerly a distinguished career professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. Lenore is also a former Vice President of the American Mathematical Society and former president of the Association for Women in Mathematics. In 2004 she received the US Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an Inaugural Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. Lenore’s MCS research interests include theories and models of consciousness such as GWT, GNWT, IIT, the Attention Schema Theory of consciousness (AST), Predictive Processing (PP), Illusionism and Conscious AI. Recognising the need for diversity within science, Lenore has also worked to increase diversity during her career.