Society for Neuroscience Chapters Graduate Student Travel Awards
Support Contributed by Eli Lilly & Co.

Nomination Form (PDF)

2008 Deadline: June 13, 2008

Introduction

The Membership & Chapters Committee of the Society for Neuroscience is pleased to continue a program to support graduate student travel to the SfN Annual Meeting. The Society for Neuroscience Chapters Graduate Student Travel Award provides a stipend to help defray travel expenses and provide complimentary meeting registration fees to honor outstanding graduate students nominated by their local SfN chapters. Awardees will be chosen on the basis of the scientific merit of the abstract, evidence of outreach activities, as well as letters of nomination from the Principal Investigator/Mentor and the local nominating chapter.

Program Guidelines

Eligibility Requirements
Each chapter may submit a single nomination to the SfN Membership & Chapters Committee. The nominees meet the following criteria:
• The nominee must be the first author of an abstract to be presented at the annual meeting.
• The abstract must be of the highest scientific merit.
• The nominee need not be a member of SfN, but his or her advisor must be.
• The nominee must be a graduate student who has advanced to candidacy for a PhD.
• Only one applicant from a given laboratory may be considered by a chapter in any given calendar year
• No member of the laboratory from which the nominee is chosen should have been the recipient of an SfN travel award the previous year.
• The nominee may not be a recipient of another SfN travel award in the same year.

Required Materials
The following materials are required for nominations:
• Completed application form
• Copy of the abstract submitted for the annual meeting
• A one-page curriculum vitae from the nominee including the following information: education, including the date at which nominee advanced to candidacy for the PhD, honors/awards, publications (abstracts and manuscripts)
• A one-page letter of recommendation from the advisor
• The chapter representative must submit a one-page letter of nomination describing the selection process employed by the chapter (e.g. number of applicants, number of committee members making the selection, and voting process for the selection); further, the letter needs to state the criterion and methods used to judge the scientific merit of the abstract (e.g., internal logic of the written abstract and quality of the research) and provide assurances regarding the general award criteria listed under Eligibility Requirements

Conditions of Award
• Letters will be sent to award winners and their chapter representatives notifying them that the nomination was selected
• Recipients will attend a special reception held in their honor at the annual meeting; recipients must attend this reception to receive their checks.
• Checks will be presented in the form of an honorarium check made out to the recipient.
• Recipients will receive a special ribbon to attach to their annual meeting badge, designating them as recipients of the SfN Chapters Graduate Student Travel Award.

Please Note: Graduate students who plan to the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting and are nominated for this award should refrain from registering for the conference until notification is received regarding the status of the nomination. Notification will be given prior to the deadline for early conference registration.

All questions and materials for the SfN Chapters Graduate Student Travel Award should be sent to the Chapters Coordinator at chapters@sfn.org.