Prof. Ramesh Kumar Mishra, Professor and Head of the Centre for Neural and Cognitive Sciences (CNCS) at the School of Medical Sciences, University of Hyderabad has received the Shastri Mobility grant for conducting joint research and teaching at the Indo-Shastri Canadian Institute. The mobility grant of Indo-Shastri allows both Indian and Canadian faculty to visit another university, exchange ideas, forge collaborations and undertake research. As part of this, Prof. Mishra will spend two weeks with Prof. Aaron Newman and Prof. Raymond Klein at the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University. This award allows him to explore collaborative research in cognitive sciences and also interact with undergraduate students of Dalhousie University, a flagship research university of Canada. Although Prof. Mishra received the grant in 2019, he could not avail of it because of covid restrictions. Prof. Mishra and Prof. Klein had earlier also received a joint research grant from the Indo-Shastri Canadian Institute.
Prof. Ramesh Kumar Mishra
Prof. Neuman is an expert in the area of cognitive neuroscience and uses brain imaging to investigate language functions. He is currently the chair of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, at Dalhousie University. He is also the author of a very popular textbook Newman, A. (2019). Research methods for cognitive neuroscience. Sage. Prof. Klein is a world-renowned authority on attention and Editor-in-Chief of Experimental Psychology, Hogrefe Publishing. He is also is a student of Prof. Michael Posner, one of the founders of the field of cognitive sciences. Prof. Mishra is the Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science and has published many books and articles in the area of cognitive sciences He works predominantly in the areas of consciousness, attention and language control, and individual differences arising within them.
In 2019, Prof. Klein also received the GIAN award and spent about two weeks at CNCS, where he delivered many important lectures. He and Prof. Mishra have long collaborated and have written many papers in peer-reviewed journals, in the area of attention and cognition. Earlier they published an article, where they compared cross-cultural aspects of attentional control in Indian and Canadian bilinguals, a report which was the first of its kind as an empirical investigation. In the currently planned visit, Prof. Mishra wishes to further explore collaborative research avenues, both in Dalhousie and Toronto, which he will visit during his stay. He also wants to discuss the possibility of creating a joint PhD program between the two departments, as there are many areas of convergence that will benefit students of the centre.