Jan Lauwereyns

Jan Lauwereyns (born 13 May 1969), full name Johan Marc José Lauwereyns, is a poet, essayist, and scientist. As a cognitive neuroscientist, he specializes in the voluntary control of attention and decision making. He has published articles in journals such as Nature, Neuron, and Trends in Cognitive Sciences, and the monograph The Anatomy of Bias with The MIT Press. As a multilingual poet, he gained an international reputation for innovative work.

Cognitive neuroscientist

Lauwereyns was born in Antwerp, Belgium. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, in 1998 with a thesis on the intentionality of visual selective attention. He has since conducted research and lectured on the neural mechanisms of perception and decision making at several institutes, including the U.S. National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Maryland), Juntendo University (Tokyo, Japan), and Victoria University of Wellington (Wellington, New Zealand). He is currently Professor in the Graduate School of Systems Life Sciences at Kyushu University (Fukuoka, Japan) and Adjunct Research Associate at Victoria University of Wellington. As of February 2010, he is Section Editor for Psychology at PLoS One. In 2010, The MIT Press published his monograph The Anatomy of Bias, an integrative account of the structure and function of bias and sensitivity. Lauwereyns connects findings and ideas in neuroscience to analogous concepts in psychonanalysis, literary theory, philosophy of mind, and experimental economics. "The book offers a 'point of entry' in a fascinating field and a source of inspiration for further research".

Multilingual poet

Lauwereyns has published single-author volumes of poetry in his native language, Dutch, and in Japanese and English. He has received several prizes and nominations for his work in Dutch, as well as grants from the Flemish Literature Fund and Creative New Zealand. According to the Flemish Literature Fund, his "analytical approach of poetic subjects produces a remarkable effect: funny, incisive and unsettling all at once. It is a poetry of crackling brain cells". Lauwereyns is Associate Editor of the Belgian literary journal DW B, and often works in collaboration with other writers and artists, including Leo Vroman, Patricia de Martelaere, Rachel Levitsky, Arkadii Dragomoshchenko, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, and Michael Palmer.

Bibliography

In English

• The Anatomy of Bias: How Neural Circuits Weigh the Options. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-262-12310-5
• Three Poems. (with 27 + 3 drawings by Johan Velter) Reading: JOUGA, 2010.
• Truths of Stone. (co-authored by Michael Palmer, with a drawing by Nicolas Leus; bilingual edition with a Dutch translation by Tom van de Voorde) Ghent, Belgium: Druksel, 2010.
• Shoaling Things. (co-authored in Russian by Arkadii Dragomoshchenko, with a drawing by Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven; translated into Dutch by Jan Lauwereyns and Evgeny Pavlov) Ghent, Belgium: Druksel, 2011.

Translated into English

• Song of the Lake. (Radiobook) Translated by Michael O'Loughlin. Brussels, Belgium: DeBuren, 2009.

In Dutch

• Nagelaten sonnetten. [Posthumous Sonnets] Antwerp, Belgium: Manteau, 1999. ISBN 90-223-1519-3
• Het zwijgen van de dichter. [The Silence of the Poet] Ghent, Belgium: Druksel, 2001.
• Blanke verzen. [Blank Verse] Tielt, Belgium: Lannoo, 2001. ISBN 90-223-1519-3
• De boeke-kas. Waartoe zo veel?. [The Book-Case. Why So Many?] Ghent, Belgium: Druksel, 2002.
• Buigzaamheden. [Flexibilities] Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Meulenhoff, 2002. ISBN 90-290-7223-7
• Monkey business. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Meulenhoff, 2003. ISBN 90-290-7378-0
• Het bloembed van de werkelijkheid. [The Flowerbed of Reality] Ghent, Belgium: Druksel, 2004.
• Tegenvoetig, tweebenig. [Antipodean, Bipedal] Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Meulenhoff, 2004. ISBN 90-290-7574-0
• Splash. Nijmegen, The Netherlands: Vantilt, 2005. ISBN 90-775-0326-9
• Anophelia! De mug leeft. [Anophelia! The Mosquito Lives] Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Meulenhoff|Manteau, 2007. ISBN 978-90-8542-093-4
• Ik, systeem, de werkelijkheid. (co-authored by Leo Vroman, with an image by Jus Juchtmans) [I, System, Reality] Ghent, Belgium: Druksel, 2007.
• Vloeistof en welvaart. [Liquid and Welfare] Amsterdam, The Netherlands: De Bezige Bij, 2008. ISBN 978-90-2342-878-7
• Lied van het meer. (Radiobook) [Song of the Lake] Brussels, Belgium: DeBuren, 2008.
• Zwelgen wij denkend rond. (co-authored by Leo Vroman) [Let's Wallow in Thought] Amsterdam, The Netherlands: De Bezige Bij, 2009. ISBN 978-90-2342-994-4
• Stemvork. (co-authored by Arnoud van Adrichem) [Tuning Fork] Utrecht, The Netherlands: IJzer, 2010. ISBN 978-90-8684-059-5
• De smaak van het geluid van het hart. [The Taste of the Sound of the Heart] Amsterdam, The Netherlands: De Bezige Bij, 2011. ISBN 978-90-5655-084-4
• Hemelsblauw. [Heaven's Blue] Amsterdam, The Netherlands: De Bezige Bij, 2011. ISBN 978-90-2345-732-9

In Japanese

• あたまがないへび. (bilingual edition with a Dutch translation by Jan Lauwereyns) [Headless Little Viper] Ghent, Belgium: Druksel, 2009.
• 馬を野に放つ. (co-authored by Kiwao Nomura, with images by Kris Martin; bilingual edition with a Dutch translation by Jan Lauwereyns) [Loose a Horse in the Field] Ghent, Belgium: Druksel, 2011.

Selected honors and awards

• Nomination C. Buddingh' Prize, 1999.
• Visiting Fellowship, U.S. National Institutes of Health, 2002.
• Hugues C. Pernath Prize, 2003.
• Excellence in Research Award, Victoria University of Wellington, 2004.
• Nomination Flemish Culture Prize for Criticism and Essay, 2007.
• Long-term Invitation Fellowship, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 2008.
• Project Grant, Human Frontier Science Program, 2010 (with A.D. Redish, I. Tsuda, E. Wood, P. Dudchenko).
• Gedichtendagessay [Poetry Day Essay], commissioned by the Flemish Literature Fund, 2011.

External links

• JOUGA 1
• Poetry International Web 2
• The MIT Press 3
• DeBuren, Radiobooks 4
• De Bezige Bij 5
• Druksel 6
• DWB 7
• Dubito Junior 8

nl:Jan Lauwereyns