Dr. Steven Laureys

Dr. Steven Laureys MD PhD FEAN, is an award-winning world-renowned neurologist, brain science populiser and bestselling author. He has conducted ground-breaking research into human consciousness for more than 25 years. Laureys has published over 500 scientific papers and 12 books.

He is the founding director of the ""GIGA Consciousness Research Unit"" (2014) of the University of Liège (Belgium) and professor at CERVO Brain Research Centre, Laval University (Canada) where he currently resides.

He explores the human mind in health and disease using the latest brain scans and wearable technologies: meditation, near-death experiences, concussion, coma, anaesthesia, hypnosis, trance and dreamlike states.

Prof. Laureys is a former president of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness and founder of the World Federation of Neurology Research Group on disorders of consciousness. Since 2012 Laureys is Research Director at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research.

He has authored the international bestseller “The no nonsense meditation book” (Bloomsbury 2021), translated in over 10 languages.

Laureys is appreciated for his entertaining, dynamic and interactive keynote speeches where he makes accessible the difficult concepts of the workings of the brain and where he builds bridges between the latest neuroscientific insights and their application to the workplace. As a top-neurologist he applies neuroscience to the business practice including neuro-economics (human decision making), neuro-ergonomics (work performance and wellbeing at work), creativity, teamwork & leadership (empathy, compassion, stress).

As an active member of the Human Brain Project, aiming to model the human mind on supercomputers, he explains how human intelligence and creativity differs from AI and neuro-robotics.

Given his didactic qualities he regularly appears in the media and is invited to discuss the latest scientific insights with world leaders, royalties, but also the Pope John Paul II and the Dalai Lama.

Laureys played his own role as a neurologist in documentaries and movies: Return from the dead (National Geographic), Julia's heart, Un monde plus grand.

He has received numerous awards including from the Society of Cognitive Neuroscience, Mind Science Foundation, Max Planck Society, Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness and the European Academy of Sciences and was elected Commander in the Order of Leopold and fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium and of the European Academy of Neurology .