Ken Paller holds the James Padilla Chair in Arts & Sciences in the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University. He also serves as Director of the Training Program in the Neuroscience of Human Cognition, funded by NIH and charged with training the next generation of cognitive neuroscientists. – His research focuses on the human mind and the intricate relationships between brain activity and conscious experience. He seeks to uncover how memories are formed, stored, and later re-experienced — sometimes unconsciously influencing our thoughts and actions. His lab group developed new methods to strategically influence the mind during sleep, which in turn can improve many aspects of the waking mind, including memory, creativity, and psychological well-being. He also collaborates with Tibetan Monastic Scholars in related research. He loves contributing to these investigations, and he believes that scientific research can reveal additional ways to harness the sleeping mind to improve people’s lives.