The speaker series kicks off with Steven E. Hyman, MD; the director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, and former provost of Harvard University. Previously, he served as director of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, where he emphasized investment in neuroscience, emerging genetic technologies, and the establishment of DNA collections to facilitate genetic studies at large scale. He also initiated a series of large clinical trials with the goal of informing practice, including studies of children, a population about which too little was known.

 Dr. Hyman is editor of the Annual Review of Neuroscience, president-elect of the Society for Neuroscience, founding president of the International Neuroethics Society, and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academies, where he serves on the governing Council and the Board on Health Sciences Policy, and chairs the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders which brings together industry, government, academia, and voluntary organizations.