Neurologist and author Atónio Damásio, Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute and Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, is the keynote speaker at the Neuroscience Janssen Award ceremony taking place, today,  March 31, at the Centro de Congressos de Lisboa, where he will address “The origins of consciousness.”

His current work involves the neurobiology of the mind, language, the social emotions, consciousness and the creative interface between neuroscience and the arts, especially music and film.

The Janssen Neuroscience Award, worth 50,000 euros, is sponsored by the Portuguese Society of Psychiatry and Mental Health and the Portuguese Society of Neuroscience, with the  goal to recognize  Portuguese scientists for their outstanding research work in the neuroscience field.