Center for Study of the Mind Receives $1.45 Million

SAGE Publications Inc., of Thousand Oaks, has made an additional $1.45 million gift to renew and expand its support for the SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind at UC Santa Barbara.

The recent gift is for the center’s distinguished visiting scholar program and lecture series. It will enable the SAGE Center to bring leading researchers to campus for extended periods of time to explore the multidimensional nature of the human mind and participate in educational seminars, workshops, and public lectures focusing on issues in neuroscience.

“We are extremely pleased to continue our interdisciplinary work, bringing the study of the brain and the mind into contact with a wide variety of other academic fields and cultural experiences,” said Michael Gazzaniga, UCSB professor of psychology and director of the SAGE Center. “We have accomplished our goal in beginning to bring together scholars in the social sciences and the arts and humanities. We also have made UCSB a center for the study of the mind by bringing distinguished scholars to the university to work in residence and by establishing an outstanding speaker series.”

UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang expressed his sincere gratitude to SAGE Publications for its “tremendous and ongoing commitment to groundbreaking scholarship and interdisciplinary studies.” He added: “We deeply appreciate the vision and generosity of chairman Sara Miller McCune and SAGE Publications in helping us engage and support outstanding scholars from a broad array of disciplines at our SAGE Center, to further strengthen the study of the mind and lead at the frontier of this exciting field for the benefit of our global society.”

The SAGE Center was established in 2005 with a generous gift from SAGE Publications, an international publisher for academic journals and textbooks. Over the years, SAGE has played an important role in fostering scholarship by providing early outlets for academic research when disciplines were still in the process of being defined.

Blaise R. Simqu, president and chief executive officer of SAGE Publications, said the company was pleased to continue its support of the interdisciplinary work of the SAGE Center. “We look forward to the SAGE Center’s continued growth in stature and impact and to the many exciting activities planned for the coming years,” he said.

Sara Miller McCune, founder, publisher, and chairman of SAGE Publications, is a generous campus benefactor. She serves on the national advisory board of the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life, and for many years she was a trustee and officer of the UC Santa Barbara Foundation.

For information about the upcoming 2010-11 SAGE Center lecture series and visiting scholar program visit the SAGE Center Web site.