Professional Development Workshops
Building a Supportive Global Network
Organizer/Moderator: Emmeline Edwards, PhD
Location: SDCC 30E
Track: Collaboration & Networking
Panelists: Pamela D Butler, PhD; Martha I Davila-Garcia, PhD; Illana Gozes, PhD; Teresa Morales, PhD; Musa V Mabandla, PhD; Jean A King, PhD
This workshop will provide a roadmap toward successful career paths and highlight the potential of developing strategic research and personal networks and capitalizing on culturally based support systems to overcome obstacles and challenges at various career transition points. Participants will interact with a panel comprising researchers currently at U.S. institutions but from foreign backgrounds as well as researchers at institutions outside of the U.S. *Diversity-Themed Session
Improving Your Science: Better Inference, Reproducible Analyses, and the New Publication Landscape
Organizer/Moderator: Robert Calin-Jageman, PhD
Location: SDCC 31C
Track: Success in Academia
Panelists: Brian A Wandell, PhD; Marina Picciotto, PhD; Christophe Bernard, PhD
This workshop will discuss rigor and reproducibility across the research lifecycle. For better inference, researchers can use an estimation approach (e.g., using effect sizes and confidence intervals) with or instead of p values. For better reproducibility, new tools are becoming available to help to document and preserve the analysis workflow. Finally, the editors of eNeuro and JNeurosci will discuss how authors can best meet the challenges of rigor and reproducibility when reporting their work. After the meeting, get the materials here.
Careers in Making Medicines: Translating Basic Research Into Therapeutics
Organizer/Moderator: Fiona E Randall, PhD
Location: SDCC 31C
Track: Career Paths
Panelists: Toni Williamson, PhD; Paul Thompson, PhD; Mark Day, PhD; Michael Nedelcovych, PhD; Lauren H Martens, PhD; Sue Macdonald, PhD
Are you interested in a career in making medicines? This workshop will showcase how basic science and innovation translate into therapeutics and give an overview of career opportunities across academia as well as the biotech and pharma industries. The panel will showcase examples of how basic biology can be turned into a drug discovery program and lead to new medicines for patients. The panel represent a broad array of career paths and will share their global experiences and provide a forum to discuss opportunities to make cross-industry transitions in your career.
How SfN Helped My Career: Expanding Your Neural Network at the Annual Meeting
Organizer/Moderator: Robert W Burgess, PhD
Location: SDCC 30E
Track: Collaboration & Networking
Panelists: Ileana Soto, PhD; Carrie Cowan, PhD; Grace Fisher; Kathryn H Morelli, PhD; Heather Dillon, PhD
SfN's annual meeting not only showcases the latest research but can also help you to build your career. In this interactive workshop, discover how panelists use the meeting to advance their research and their professional relationships, learn how to make the most of your meeting experience by taking advantage of the various networking opportunities available to you, and gain practical experience introducing yourself and your research.
How to Thrive as a Woman in Neuroscience
Organizer/Moderator: Melissa A Harrington, PhD
Location: SDCC 31C
Track: Career Paths
Panelists: Miri VanHoven, PhD; Wendy A Suzuki, PhD; Margaret M McCarthy, PhD; Jennifer M Swann, PhD
This workshop features a panel of diverse female speakers from a variety of backgrounds, types of institutions, and career stages, and will focus on how women can succeed in their neuroscience careers. The women will speak from personal experience about how to deal with major obstacles that undermine success, including lack of encouragement, stereotypes about what type of people do science, discomfort with competitive environments, marginalization within organizations, bias (both implicit and explicit), and childcare. *Diversity-Themed Session
Bringing a Student-Run Outreach Program to Your Institution
Organizer/Moderator: Barbara Terzic; Alice C Dallstream
Location: SDCC 11
Track: Neuroscience Education
Panelists: Jesse Isaacman-Beck, PhD; Chris Pierce, PhD; Joshua I Gold, PhD; Kate L Christison-Lagay, PhD; Kelly L Jordan-Sciutto, PhD; Samantha L White, PhD
Graduate education can no longer rely on scientific training alone to produce successful PhDs. This workshop will teach faculty and students how to create student-run outreach organizations that engage local communities and teach professional skills, based on a model at the University of Pennsylvania (upennglia.com). Faculty, students, and alumni will teach attendees how to create their own student-run outreach group through a panel and breakout sessions. *Diversity-Themed Session
Face-to-Face Networking: Building and Maintaining Professional Relationships
Organizer/Moderator: Rae Nishi, PhD
Location: SDCC 30E
Track: Collaboration & Networking
Panelists: Chiamaka Nwakeze; Keven J Laboy-Juarez; Kevin Jones, PhD; Nicole A Aponte-Santiago; Kelly Brackett, PhD
The moderator will give a brief talk about face-to-face networking, after which panel members will introduce themselves and each answer a question from the moderator. The panel will subsequently accept questions from the audience. This will be a highly interactive session.
Fixing the Leaky Pipeline for Women in Science: Addressing Issues Facing New Moms
Organizer/Moderator: Jamie Nicole Krueger, MS
Location: SDCC 31C
Track: Success in Academia
Panelists: Rebecca M Calisi Rodríguez, PhD; Lauren L Drogos, PhD; Kaliris Y Salas-Ramirez, PhD; Jessica R Barson, PhD; Anahita Hamidi, PhD
This workshop addresses women in science who have chosen to begin their families and their careers in parallel. Graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career faculty will discuss their experiences as mothers in STEM. The panel will address potential challenges of juggling family and work at each academic career level. Participants will be encouraged to network with other parents in the field, share resources, and discuss solutions to challenges they may face as they progress in their academic careers. *Diversity-Themed Session
Career Planning and Explorations for Biomedical PhD Scientists and Physician-Scientists (MD/PhD)
Organizer/Moderator: Nancy Schwartz, PhD
Location: SDCC 31C
Track: Career Paths
Panelists: John P Horn, PhD; Ricardo E Dolmetsch, PhD
Participants in this session will be introduced to the wide range of careers in neuroscience open to graduates of PhD and MD/PhD programs. Exploration of options, key aspects in training that are required to be competitive in multiple careers, finding resources, and acquiring professional skills while in graduate school or as a postdoctoral fellow, as well as transitioning between jobs and careers in different sectors, will be emphasized. This workshop will be beneficial for early-career neuroscientists from all backgrounds.
Cultivating Leadership in Multidisciplinary Research: Bridging Gaps Across Campuses, Countries, and Continents
Organizer/Moderator: Sadye Paez, PhD
Location: SDCC 30E
Track: Collaboration & Networking
Panelists: Erich D Jarvis, PhD; Atsushi Iriki, PhD; Alexander R McCampbell, PhD; Orli Bahcall, PhD; Andreas R Pfenning, PhD; Lauren Shalmiyev; Stephanie Marcus
The current trend of collaborative research highlights the need for developing leadership in multidisciplinary settings and cultivating agility in working across disciplines. This workshop will highlight common problems that occur during large-scale collaboration and discuss how to effectively shift from a traditional hierarchical command-and-control model to a team-centric model that fosters a collective information-sharing culture. This shift promotes a landscape of accountability and performance across disciplines and drives engagement and goal alignment.
Neuroscience Departments and Programs Workshop: Breaking Through: Pathways to Independence for Early Career Neuroscientists
Organizer/Moderator: Elisabeth J Van Bockstaele, PhD; Rosalind A Segal, MD, PhD
Location: SDCC 30E
Track: Neuroscience Education
The National Academies report The Next Generation of Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences Researchers: Breaking Through outlines programs and policies that can reduce barriers to, and create more opportunities for, successful transitions to independent research careers. The NDP workshop will focus on aspects of the report that relate to key strategies for ensuring the successful launch and sustainment of careers in the biomedical sciences, with a particular focus on postdoctoral training programs in neuroscience.
How a Journal Handles Your Paper
Organizer/Moderator: J. Paul Bolam, PhD
Location: SDCC 31C
Track: Success in Academia
Panelists: John Foxe, PhD; Juan Lerma, PhD; Maryann E Martone, PhD; Eric M Prager, PhD
The most important skill a scientist needs, after the skills needed to execute a study, is the ability to report his or her scientific endeavors in writing. The aim of this workshop, presented by the editors of four international neuroscience journals, is to inform on what happens to a paper once the “submit” button is pressed. The presenters will discuss what editors consider when deciding whether to review a paper, what is expected from reviewers, the importance of contributing to the peer review process, and ethical and reproducibility issues surrounding publishing scientific papers.
FAIR Neuroscience: Sharing and Collaborating for Reproducible Neuroscience
Organizer/Moderator: Linda Lanyon, PhD
Location: SDCC 31C
Track: Success in Academia
Panelists: Kirstie J Whitaker, PhD; Gustav Nilsonne, PhD; Teon Brooks, PhD; Michaela Torkar; Robin Champieux; Maryann E Martone, PhD
Future neuroscience will need to be FAIR, open, and citeable. How do we get there, and are there already good ways to do FAIR science today? Speakers representing tool development initiatives, publishing, and data science will present solutions for sharing, publishing, and collaborating in neuroscience.
Teaching Neuroscience: Emotion and Learning
Organizer/Moderator: Richard F Olivo, PhD
Location: SDCC 30E
Track: Neuroscience Education
Panelists: Barbara Lewis, MD; Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, PhD; Christine Alvarado, PhD; Stephen Maren, PhD
Although we often think of learning as a neutral cognitive process, emotion has strong effects on students' ability to learn and remember. This workshop will review some of the basic neuroscience that connects emotion and memory, examine the role of emotion in students' learning, discuss practical strategies for creating an emotionally productive classroom, and invite a clinician to speak about disabling anxiety that derails students' academic progress.
