More than 900 people gathered at SMU’s Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium on 12 and 13 October 2007 for the 10th Lien Fung’s Colloquium to hear recognised neurologist Professor Daisy Lan Hung present two lectures in Mandarin on how the science of the brain affects the various aspects of our lives.

Prof Hung’s two lectures–“Cerebrum and Life: Looks at the daily life behaviour from the science of brain” and “Cerebrum and learning: Moral Education and Relationships”–drew capacity audiences. Among those attending were mothers with young children, many of whom were keen to find out how the brain can affect their children’s behaviour and the best way to deal with growing pains at various stages of their children’s lives. The more elderly members of the audience fired Prof Hung with questions on how to deal with old age issues such as Parkinson’s Disease and memory loss. The lectures were insightful and the question and answer sessions stretched to almost 3 hours on both afternoons.

The Lien Fung’s Colloquium was established at SMU by Mrs Ho Lien Fung in 2001 to enhance public understanding and appreciation of culture and society through lectures, talks and other events, with a particular focus on everyday life.

Professor Hung, from the Institute of Neuroscience at the National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan, is a law graduate, with an MA in Experimental Psychology, and received her PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of California, Riverside, USA. She serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing (London) and is an occasional reviewer for the National Science Council.