On the afternoon of May 15, 2026, Nguyen Anh Tuan, Co-Founder, Co-Chair and CEO of the Boston Global Forum and AIWS, visited Professor Robert Desimone at his office at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT to present the America 250: AI Pioneers Award Plaque of Honor. The recognition honored Professor Desimone’s pioneering contributions to neuroscience, the science of attention, and the foundations of intelligence in the AI Age.
Professor Desimone, Director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience at MIT, is recognized as one of America’s leading neuroscientists. His four decades of work on attention, perception, and how the brain selects what matters have helped illuminate principles that are deeply relevant to modern artificial intelligence. His Special Profile for the America 250: AI Pioneers Award highlights his foundational role in connecting brain science with the AI Age.
In his remarks of honor, Nguyen Anh Tuan emphasized that the AI Age requires not only computing power, but also wisdom, attention, trust, and human responsibility. He noted that Professor Desimone’s work reminds us that intelligence begins not only with computation, but with the capacity to focus, select, understand, and act responsibly.
During their meeting, Professor Desimone and Nguyen Anh Tuan also discussed plans to organize a series of high-level roundtables on urgent and important issues in AI, with the participation of distinguished America 250: AI Pioneers. The McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT is expected to host these conversations, creating a special forum where neuroscience, artificial intelligence, ethics, governance, and human-centered innovation can meet.
These roundtables will continue the spirit of America at 250: A Beacon for the AI Age — bringing together pioneering minds to help shape an AI Age that is not only intelligent and powerful, but trustworthy, humane, and guided by human dignity.
Download the full remarks honoring Professor Robert Desimone here: https://bostonglobalforum.org/wp-content/uploads/Honoring_Desimone_Formatted.pdf
Download the Special Profile of Professor Robert Desimone here: https://bostonglobalforum.org/wp-content/uploads/Robert-Desimone-·-AI-Pioneers-Special-Profile.pdf
