“The Neuroscience of Play” is the theme of this spring’s Ruth Stricker Mind-Body Lecture, May 16-17, 2011, presented by the Center for Spirituality and Healing and co-sponsored by the Henry L. Taylor Professorship in Exercise Science and Health Enhancement. Dr. Arthur Leon, MD, holds the Taylor Professorship in the School of Kinesiology.
Stuart Brown, MD, prolific author and executive producer of the three-part PBS series, The Promise of Play, will deliver two lectures. Dr. Brown first recognized the importance of play by discovering its absence in the life stories of murderers and felony drunk drivers. His independent scholarship and exploration of play led to the establishment of the National Institute for Play.
The Neuroscience of Play lecture will be held Monday, May 16, from 12-1:30 p.m. in Mayo Memorial Auditorium, $15 general admission, $10 students. The Power of Play lecture will be held Tuesday, May 17, from 7-8:30 p.m. at The Marsh, 15000 Minnetonka Blvd, Minnetonka, MN. Register online for the U of M lecture at www.tickets.umn.edu. Contact The Marsh at http://www.themarsh.com/ for more information about the second lecture.

Congratulations to Dr. Don Dengel, associate professor of exercise physiology in the School of Kinesiology, who has received the prestigious CEHD Marty and Jack Rossman Award, which recognizes a tenured faculty member who has “demonstrated a truly exceptional level of creativity and productivity in scholarship, teaching and service, and who shows great promise of continuing such achievement.”
Dr. Dengel will receive an $8,000 award over two years to support research, travel, or professional development. The award was presented at the CEHD Annual Spring Assembly and Recognition Event yesterday.
Congratulations, Dr. Dengel!

Dr. Donald Dengel, associate professor of exercise physiology, has been busy giving lectures across the map this semester.
His most recent presentation on “Imaging The Effects of Cancer Treatments in Peripheral and Cerebral Vascular Beds” took place at the University of Iowa’s Institute for Biomedical Imaging on April 21.
On March 17, Professor Dengel traveled to Liverpool John Moores University in England to present “Childhood Obesity: Vascular Consequences and Solutions” at a seminar with the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences.
The University of Minnesota hosted a Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship Program seminar on March 7. Dengel presented “The Effects Of Chemotherapy And Radiation On Vascular Function: From Peripheral To Cerebral.”
The University of Minnesota’s Department of Neurology invited Professor Dengel to present “The Effects of Obesity on Vascular Function: From Peripheral to Cerebral” at the Neurology Grand Rounds seminar on February 3.