Society for Neuroscience - Program Committee

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  1. About
  2. Committees
  3. Program Committee

The Program Committee continually improves and enhances the SfN annual meeting experience by planning engaging scientific sessions with cutting-edge neuroscience research topics and speakers and encouraging the exchange of information. The committee has a number of subcommittees charged with specific tasks.

Roles and Responsibilities

  • Evaluate annual meeting activities and make recommendations.
  • Advise new strategies for adapting to changes in the scale, complexity, and format of the annual meeting.
  • Review and revise the themes and topics list for the annual meeting, which serves as a working taxonomy for the field of neuroscience.
  • Identify the educational needs of the neuroscience community.
  • Review member-submitted abstracts and build coherent and logical scientific sessions.
  • Ensure scientific quality, ethics, and appropriate conduct in research and practice of the annual meeting program.
  • Propose and select the featured program, including lectures, symposia, minisymposia, and other featured scientific panel sessions.
  • Review and approve annual meeting activities developed by other committees and groups.
  • Observe and collect feedback from colleagues and participation in other meetings.
  • Ensure scientific programming is representative of all SfN member. Maintain a balance of diversity and inclusion, with regard to the annual meeting scientific program and key lecturer opportunities.

Mission

To continually improve and enhance the SfN annual meeting experience by planning engaging scientific sessions containing cutting edge neuroscience research topics and speakers, and encouraging the exchange of information.

Responsibilities

Monitor

  • Observe trends and changes in the field of neuroscience, and consider the diverse backgrounds and needs of SfN members and meeting attendees in order to consistently provide a rigorous, comprehensive, and balanced scientific program.
  • Observe and gather feedback from colleagues and from attendance at other scientific/medical meetings.
  • Identify the broad educational needs of the neuroscience community, at the research and translational level.
 

Advise

  • Evaluate annual meeting activities and make recommendations to Council to reshape the program as necessary, considering logistical needs and constraints, particularly as the meeting size and the field of neuroscience change.
  • Advise Council on new strategies for dealing with changes in the size, complexity, and formats of the annual meeting.
  • Provide guidance in the management of complex issues related to programming and logistics.
  • Identify abstracts that are potentially newsworthy, to be considered by the Press Planning Committee to develop press conferences for the annual meeting.
 

Manage Activities

  • Review abstracts submitted by the membership and build coherent and logical scientific sessions for the annual meeting, while ensuring that all guidelines regarding scientific quality, ethics, and appropriate conduct in research and practice are met.
  • Propose and select the featured program, including lectures, symposia, and minisymposia.
  • Ensure that the scientific program adequately reflects the scientific interests and the composition of the membership.
  • Implement a system to review and revise the list of Themes and Topics on an annual basis.
  • Continue to find ways to provide attendees with the opportunity to socialize and network with colleagues in similar disciplines of neuroscience.
  • Propose and select topics and panelists / speakers for the Meet the Experts Series.
  • Be informed of annual meeting activities that are developed by other committees and groups.
  • Review and approve satellite events.
  • Provide the Committee on Committees with suggestions for new members to the Program Committee to ensure appropriate balance of the Committee.
 

Note: Activities that result in a substantial change in practice or policy, especially in matters affecting financial liability, public relations, or relations with other societies, must be approved by Council.

Coordinate and Communicate

  • Facilitate the lines of communications between Council and meeting attendees.

Composition

The committee is composed of standard committee members who serve three-year terms. The incoming chair, the past chair, the President, the President-Elect, and the Secretary serve as ex officio members of the committee. Committee members are recommended by the Committee on Committees and approved by Council. The chair is appointed by the president.

The chair, past chair, and incoming chair are empowered to act on behalf of the committee on matters that require decisions between meetings of the full committee.

Subcommittees are formed as needed to accomplish the duties of the committee; however, the following is a list of standing, active subcommittees and associated participation and responsibilities:

 

Group Name
Leadership
Participation
Responsibilities
Subcommittee on Ethics Program Committee Chair All Theme Subcommittee Chairs and Members Present at the Meeting To review abstracts flagged by the Committee as "sensitive" (animals in research/sensitive subject matter) or "suspicious" (commercial/ethical ambiguity/did not comply with abstract submission rules)
Theme Subcommittees Theme Subcommittee Chair All members as related to areas of expertise To consider the field of neuroscience at a more granular level and to advocate for the needs and interests of the assigned theme, to evaluate and recommend proposals and lecturers; to session abstracts thematically

Schedule

All committee members are expected to attend two to three yearly Program Committee meetings. The first occurs in the first part of the year, usually in February, to select symposia, minisymposia, lectures, SfN-sponsored socials, and other programming. In the three weeks leading up to this meeting, committee members will be asked to dedicate some time to reviewing submitted symposium proposals and recommending potential lecturers. The second meeting is mid year, usually in June, to complete the sessioning of abstracts. Committee and Subcommittee chairs are required to attend the June meeting. Prior to this meeting, in the late-Spring, Committee members must be prepared to review and session assigned abstracts. The third meeting is during the annual meeting to begin the planning process for the subsequent annual meeting. Additional correspondence is conducted by e-mail and conference call, as needed, throughout the calendar year to address program-related issues.

Program Committee

Chairperson Term Ends
Schiller, Daniela
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
11/18/2025
Incoming Chair Term Ends
Tritsch, Nicolas X
McGill University
11/18/2025
Members  
Ferrario, Carrie R.
The University of Michigan
11/18/2025
Wu, Long-Jun
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
11/18/2025
Hippenmeyer, Simon
IST Austria
11/18/2025
Morrison, Brett M.
Johns Hopkins University
11/18/2025
Ding, Jun B
Stanford University
11/18/2025
Singer, Annabelle C
Georgia Institute of Technology & Emory University
11/18/2025
Likhtik, Ekaterina
Hunter College, CUNY
11/18/2025
Abel, Ted
University of Iowa
11/18/2025
Piskorowski, Rebecca A
Sorbonne Université, Institute Biology Paris Seine, Neuroscience Paris Seine
11/18/2025
Courtine, Gregoire
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
11/18/2025
Igarashi, Kei M
UC Irvine
11/18/2025
Majewska, Anna K.
University of Rochester
11/18/2025
Gomez, Timothy M
University of Wisconsin - Madison
11/18/2025
Han, Xue
Boston University
11/18/2025
Corlett, Philip R
Yale
11/18/2025
Seal, Rebecca P
University of Pittsburgh
11/17/2026
Aizenman, Carlos D
Brown University
11/17/2026
Shimogori, Tomomi
RIKEN
11/17/2026
Shih, Andy Y
Seattle Children's Research Institute
11/17/2026
Desrochers, Theresa M
Brown University
11/17/2026
Gray, Michelle
University of Alabama, Birmingham
11/17/2026
Franks, Kevin M.
Duke University
11/17/2026
Hanakawa, Takashi
Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine
11/17/2026
Schafer, Dorothy P
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School Graduate Program in Neuroscience
11/17/2026
Moayedi, Yalda
New York University
11/17/2026
Chen, Simon
11/17/2026
Chang, Steve W. C.
Yale University
11/17/2026
Emiliani, Valentina
Vision Insitut
11/17/2026
Heckscher, Ellie
University of Chicago
11/17/2026
Chen, Jerry L.
Boston University
11/17/2026
Chee, Melissa J
Carleton University
11/17/2026
Morishita, Hirofumi
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
10/26/2027
Shackman, Alexander J
University of Maryland
10/26/2027
Li, Jian
10/26/2027
Cang, Jianhua
University of Virginia
10/26/2027
Ackerley, Rochelle
CNRS Aix-Marseille University
10/26/2027
Keren, Hanna
Bar-Ilan university
10/26/2027
Fukunaga, Izumi
OIST Graduate School
10/26/2027
Hu, Ji
10/26/2027
Fattori, Patrizia
University of Bologna
10/26/2027
ZHU, Shujia
Institute of Neuroscience, CAS
10/26/2027
Fournier, Alyson E
McGill Univ
10/26/2027
Ikezu, Tsuneya
Mayo Clinic Florida
10/26/2027
Spencer, Sarah J.
RMIT University
10/26/2027
Reed, Tanea T
Eastern Kentucky University
10/26/2027
Satkunendrarajah, Kajana
10/26/2027
Ramot, Michal
Weizmann Institute of Science
10/26/2027
Ma, Le
Thomas Jefferson University
10/26/2027
Lee, Hyun Kyoung
Baylor College of Medicine
10/26/2027
Viana, Felix
Universidad Miguel Hernandez-CSIC
10/26/2027
Van Hooser, Stephen D.
Brandeis University
10/26/2027
Ex Officio Members Term Ends
Morrison, John
UC Davis
11/18/2025
Spitzer, Nicholas C
UCSD
11/18/2025
Roche, Katherine W
NIH
11/17/2026
Past Chair Members Term Ends
Colgin, Laura Lee
The University of Texas At Austin
11/18/2025

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