Learn the Story of SfN’s Creation
Are you curious about the Society for Neuroscience’s long and storied history? Whose idea was it to create this organization devoted to the study of the brain and nervous system? How did the founders choose the name? How has SfN shaped the field of neuroscience? Learn all about SfN’s first 25 years, from 1969-1995, in a new online interactive experience.
The History of SfN project includes:
- A visual timeline of significant SfN milestones
- An essay that chronicles the stories and events from the Society’s first 25 years
- Videos featuring many of SfN’s past presidents discussing the growth of the society
- Artifacts such as pictures and documents from SfN’s early years
Larry Swanson, SfN’s immediate past president, initiated the History of SfN project in 2013. He wanted to ensure that SfN’s founding and its early contributions to the field were captured and documented for future generations. Swanson and other members of the SfN Council, including current SfN President Carol Mason, helped guide the development of the project over the past year.
SfN partnered with Joel Braslow and his team at UCLA to write this history and to create this multimedia collection of historical materials. The team sifted through SfN’s archival material, UCLA’s Neuroscience History Archives, and other sources, in addition to interviewing many SfN members and past presidents for their personal accounts of SfN’s first 25 years.
If you are interested in sharing your memories of SfN’s early years to help grow this new historical collection, please email dshellard@sfn.org.
