當一個念頭可以改變一個科學 landscape 的時候，它未必是從諾貝爾奬級的大師出發，而常常來自擁有熱情與抱負的新、中生代科學家。

Tony Zador 是一個這樣的典範。當他20多年前在 Cold Spring Harbor 的時候，作為一個實驗學者，他對於實驗和計算神經科學家的壁壘分明有很大的不滿。因此他隻手提出了”COSYNE”會議的概念；今天，它是 mechanistic cognitive neuroscience 最具指標性的會議。他曾說，COSYNE 的成功，很大一部分來自於品味。

他相信 Neuro 和 AI 應該相輔相成。Tony 從認知理論汲取靈感，認為感知的不確定性影響對世界的認知，這個理念廣泛存在於他對動物聽覺的表徵與訊息處理的研究中。他成為橫跨歐美的 NeuroAI 初期旗艦會議的重要推手。

他相信許多人對於學習的基本假設有很大的誤解。Tony 認為，演化將累積的知識壓縮在基因裡，基因體瓶頸 (genomic bottleneck) 決定了你在有限的生命裡如何學、以及為什麼能學得那麼快、那麼好。他發明 MAPseq，在技術上融合現代分子生物學與神經解剖學。

台灣 NeuroAI 暑期學校今年在中研院南部院區舉辦。我們很榮幸利用這個名義邀請到 Anthony Zador，作為台灣在 NeuroAI 思維方式的推手與倡議者，跨越學會、研究機構與分科的壁壘，告訴我們一套關於破解智慧規律的跨域基礎的故事。


When an idea reshapes the landscape of science, it does not always begin from someone with a “big name”. More often, it begins with a young scientist who has the vision and courage to challenge the status quo. Tony Zador is one such person.

While at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory more than two decades ago, Tony was frustrated by the sharp divide standing between experimental and computational neuroscientists. Rather than accepting it, he proposed a new meeting COSYNE—a conference dedicated to bringing the two communities together. Today, it has become a most representative conference for mechanistic cognitive neuroscience. Tony once said that much of its success comes down to one simple variable: taste.

Tony has long believed that neuroscience and artificial intelligence should advance hand in hand. Drawing inspiration from cognitive theories, he argued that an animal’s understanding of uncertainty fundamentally shapes how it represents and interprets auditory information. He is a driving force behind NeuroAI, having established the field’s earliest conference held across the North America and Europe.

He also challenges some deep assumptions about learning. Tony argues that evolution compressed accumulated knowledge into genes. “Genomic bottleneck”, he suggests, determines how we learn, as well as why we can learn so quickly and efficiently in the limited lifetime. He invited MAPseq, technically bringing together modern molecular biology and connectomics.

This year, the Taiwan NeuroAI Summer School is being held at Academia Sinica’s South Campus. We are deeply honored to have Anthony Zador as a Keynote speaker with the summer school as a stage, who will actually speak to the broader audience. As a leading advocate for NeuroAI, Tony will have a dialogue over the boundaries between scientific societies and research institutions in Taiwan. He will possibly share a story of how cross-disciplinary thinking may help “crack” fundamental principles of intelligence.