History of Women in Neuroscience, the Organization

Background
Women in Neuroscience (WIN) was founded in 1980 as an international organization with the chief purpose of fostering the development and career advancement of women scientists, particularly in the field of neuroscience.

For 25 years, WIN worked to provide opportunities for women in neuroscience at all levels. WIN played an instrumental role in providing the following services and programs to women neuroscientists:

• Annual travel awards to SfN's annual meeting
• Mentor/mentee partnering
• Quarterly newsletters
• Roommate referral service
• Career development programs

On Dec. 1, 2004, WIN joined with SfN's Committee for the Development of Women's Careers in Neuroscience, leading to the creation of a renamed SfN committee, the Committee on Women in Neuroscience (C-WIN).  C-WIN continued many WIN activiites, including travel and achievement awards, and mentoring and professional development activities for young neuroscientists.

Awards History
To raise the visibility of preeminent women in neuroscience, WIN established the Mika Salpeter Women In Neuroscience Lifetime Achievement Award, inaugurated in 2000 with an award to Mary Bartlett Bunge.

In 2001, two new awards were inaugurated, the WIN Hall of Honor Award and the WIN Special Recognition Award.

In 2003, WIN inaugurated the Young Investigator Award (YIA) for a researcher in the early stages of her career who has made exceptional scientific contributions to neuroscience and exhibits the potential for continuing a high level of scientific endeavor while fostering the career development of young scientists. YIA was presented to Debra Fadool at the 2003 annual meeting.

In 2004, the Excellence in Publications Award was inaugurated and presented to Qin Shen of the Center for Neuropharmacology and Neuroscience at Albany Medical College for her paper entitled, "Endothelial Cells Stimulate Self-Renewal and Expand Neurogenesis of Neural Stem Cells" (Science 304:1338-1340, 2004).

WIN sponsored travel scholarships to the SfN annual meeting. These awards supported graduate students presenting research. The first travel grants were funded entirely by WIN dues and t-shirt sales.  In 1987, WIN steering committee member Laura Mendelsohn, a research scientist at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, Ind., helped WIN obtain a grant from the Females and Minorities in Lilly (FAMILY) committee for $2,000 annually for three years.  By 1991, WIN had awarded 22 travel awards.  Eli Lilly continued to sponsor these awards after WIN joined SfN.