James Austin has spent most of his years as an academic neurologist, first at
the University of Oregon Medical School and later at the University of Colorado
Health Sciences Center. He is currently Clinical Professor of Neurology at the University of Missouri-Columbia's Health Sciences Center. He began Zen meditation training with an English-speaking Zen master, Kobori-Roshi, in 1974.
Dr. Austin maintains a keen interest in the experimental designs and findings of investigators who study meditation, insight, and related states of consciousness. His early research background includes publications in the areas of clinical neurology, neuropathology, neurochemistry, and neuropharmacology. He is the author or  co-author of more than 140 professional publications, including three MIT Press publications: Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness (1998); Chase, Chance, and Creativity: The Lucky Art of Novelty (2003); and Zen-Brain Reflections: Reviewing Recent Development in Meditation and States of Consciousness (2006). His next book is entitled, Zen Brain, Selfless Insight: The Meditative Transformations of Consciousness (MIT Press, 2008).
Ursula Goodenough is Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. She earned her M.A. in Zoology from Columbia University and in 1969 completed her Ph.D. at Harvard University. She wrote three editions of the bestselling and widely adopted textbook, Genetics, and has served in numerous capacities including president of the Society of Cell Biologists. Dr. Goodenough joined the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS) in 1989 and served continuously on its Council and as its president for four years. She has presented papers and seminars on science and religion to numerous audiences, and serves on the editorial board of Zygon:Journal of Religion and Science. Her best-selling book, The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998), was named the Outstanding Academic Book in 1999 by Choice.
Adam Frank is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Rochester. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Washington in 1992. Professor Frank's current research focuses on the dynamics of magnetized plasmas and their role in the formation of stars and planets. Professor Frank has a strong interest in communicating the beauty and power of science to wider audience and writes for magazines like Discover, Astronomy, and Scientific American. Recently he completed a book entitled The Constant Fire: Beyond the Science vs. Religion Debate (University of California Press, October 2008) exploring the relationship between Science, Mythology and conceptions of the Sacred.
Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede (pronounced BODE’n COAL-heed) is Abbot of the Rochester Zen Center, to which he has devoted himself full-time for thirty-five years. Prior to coming to the Center in 1970, he received a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan. He was ordained as a Buddhist priest in 1976 and went on to spend several years traveling extensively with the Center's founder, Roshi Philip Kapleau, and working closely with him on three of his books. After completing twelve years of koan training under Roshi Kapleau, Roshi Kjolhede spent a year on pilgrimage through Japan, China, India, Tibet, and Taiwan. In 1986 he was installed by Roshi Kapleau as his Dharma-successor and, the following year, Abbot of the Center. Since then he has conducted some 150 retreats (sesshin), most of seven days, in the United States, Sweden, Germany, and Mexico. He has published numerous articles and travels widely (most recently to Taiwan) to participate in Buddhist teachers' conferences. He now devotes most of his time to teaching at the original Dharma center and residential training facility of the Rochester Zen Center and nearby at Chapin Mill, its country retreat center. In his twenty years of teaching, Roshi Kjolhede has sanctioned six of his students as Zen teachers, who now lead Zen centers in Chicago, Mexico, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand, and Germany.
B. Alan Wallace is an author, translator, teacher, researcher, interpreter and Buddhist practitioner interested in the intersections of consciousness studies and scientific disciplines such as psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and physics. Wallace has a B.A. in Physics and Philosophy of Science from Amherst College and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Stanford. Since 1976, Wallace has taught Buddhism, philosophy and meditation in Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Australia. He has served as interpreter for many Buddhist contemplatives and scholars including His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His many books include the Taboo of Subjectivity: Towards a New Science of Consciousness (2004), The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind (2006), Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge (2006), Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness (2007), and most recently Embracing Mind: The Common Ground of Science and Spirituality (with Brian Hodel, 2008). He also founded and is President of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. His life's work focuses on a deep engagement between Buddhist philosophical and contemplative inquiry and modern science and philosophy, with a special emphasis on exploring the nature and potentials of the mind in a radically empirical manner, as free as possible from the dogmas of religion and materialism.
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