SWAGÊÓƵ students, faculty and professional staff attend world’s largest neuroscience meeting
Sixteen faculty, professional staff and students from the Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences (CEN) recently participated in the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, California.
Approximately 30,000 scientists, from more than 80 countries, attend the annual event, making it the world’s largest gathering for neuroscientists.
For several SWAGÊÓƵ undergraduate students attending the international conference for the first time, the gathering provided them the opportunity to explore possible careers in the neuroscience field.
Two undergraduate students, Emma McCormac (Medical Biology, ’20) and Samantha Dinsdale (Medical Biology, ’19), both in the laboratory of Benjamin Harrison, Ph.D., assistant professor of Biomedical Sciences, presented their research at the conference.
Eliza Grlickova-Duzevik, M.D., Ph.D., post-doctoral fellow, and lab manager Merilla Michael, also members of the Harrison lab, presented posters at the conference.
The conference had a special poster session devoted to undergraduate neuroscience lab research, giving all attendees the opportunity to learn about work being performed in other labs.
As part of that session, Michael Burman, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology, and his undergraduate student Taylor Paquin (Animal Behavior, ’20) presented a poster on the effects of neonatal pain on maternal behavior.
Burman lab members Makaela Rice (Neuroscience ’19), Seth Davis, Ph.D., post-doctoral fellow, and lab manager Jared Zuke presented posters about the research they are doing on neonatal pain.
Ian Meng, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Biomedical Science and CEN director, presented a poster about the annual SWAGÊÓƵ Brain Fair during a special session devoted to Brain Awareness Week, a global campaign to promote the general public’s interest in neuroscience.
Meng hopes other neuroscience outreach organizations will be able to utilize some of the programing developed for the brain fair. The session also sparked new ideas that CEN could incorporate into future SWAGÊÓƵ Brain Fairs.
Most of the research presented at the conference by SWAGÊÓƵ faculty, students and professional staff received financial support from the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) for the Study of Pain and Sensory Function.
CEN and the Department of Biology supported the travel and attendance of graduate and undergraduate students at the conference.
