SfN Announces 2025 Election Results

The Society for Neuroscience expresses its congratulations to the officers and councilors elected during this year’s annual election. The incoming leaders will begin their terms at Neuroscience 2025 in San Diego.

SfN membership elected Patricia Janak as incoming president-elect, Pat Levitt as incoming secretary-elect, and William Martin as incoming treasurer-elect. The elected incoming councilors are Laura Colgin and Irene Tracey.

Incoming President-Elect: Patricia Janak

Patricia Janak is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences of Johns Hopkins University and the Department of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She also serves as a co-director of the OneNeuro Initiative at Hopkins, a project built to enhance relationships and emphasize the importance of community for neuroscientists dispersed among Johns Hopkin’s many departments and campus locations. She received both her MA and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Her current research focuses on the neurobiology of reward, associative learning, and addiction. Janak is no stranger to SfN, as she has been a longtime member and previously served as the Society’s Secretary, Program Committee Chair, Committee on Committees Chair, and member of the Donald B. Lindsley Prize Selection Committee and the JNeurosci Editorial Board.

Reflecting on her upcoming term, Janak said:

“These are challenging times. We must work together to support the full spectrum of our scientific endeavor, as we seek to better the human condition and continue our exploration of ourselves and the world around us.  I look forward to helping SfN benefit our broad neuroscience community, from providing opportunities to share science at the annual meeting, to continuing strong advocacy for funding and critical support for the next generation of neuroscientists.”

Incoming Secretary-Elect: Pat Levitt

Pat Levitt is the Simms/Mann Chair of Developmental Neurogenetics and WM Keck Professor of Neurogenetics within the Division of Neurology and Department of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. He also holds an administrative role as Chief Scientific Officer, Senior Vice President, and Director of The Saban Research Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Levitt’s research focuses on basic science topics surrounding maturation and development of neural circuitry during adolescence and the role of stress and environment on neural development, as well as clinical science topics focused on the role of toxic stress and adversity on infant development and creating new methods of identification for early intervention in high-risk populations.

Levitt has been a member of SfN for almost 50 years and has served in various Society roles, including serving as a former Councilor. Additionally, he has served on multiple awards selection committees, Chair of the Program Committee, the JNeurosci Editorial Board, and more. Outside of SfN, he is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Incoming Treasurer-Elect: William Martin

William Martin is the Global Neuroscience Therapeutic Area Head at Johnson & Johnson (J&J). He received his PhD from Brown University and completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco. As a postdoc, his research focused on cannabinoid function within pain pathways, persistent pain mechanisms, and therapeutic developments for pain. In 2015, Martin founded BlackThorn Therapeutics which marked a turning point in his career as his interests shifted towards computational psychiatry and precision neuroscience. His current work at J&J focuses on the discovery and development of a precision neuroscience pipeline for prevalent neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders, specifically Alzheimer’s disease and depression.

Martin has been a member of SfN for over 30 years and has served on various committees including the Finance Committee, Neuroscience Scholars Program Advisory Board, and Government and Public Affairs Committee. He has served as the Chair of the Government and Public Affairs Committee, Advisory Group On Member Value, Committee on Diversity in Neuroscience, and METPAC. Additionally, he is a past Councilor for SfN. He has also served as a Board Member for Coalition for the Life Sciences and Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and is currently an elected member of the Neuroscience Steering Committee through AAAS.

Incoming Councilor: Laura Colgin

Laura Colgin is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Director of the Center for Learning and Memory at The University of Texas at Austin. She received her PhD from the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences at the University of California at Irvine. Her research focuses on understanding the processes of memory storage, retrieval, and consolidation by neurons in the hippocampus; cellular and circuit systems involved in hippocampal rhythms; and observing the role of disrupted neurophysiological mechanisms in abnormal learning and memory experiences, as well as cognitive and behavioral deficits, in brain disorder models.

Colgin has been a member of SfN for over 20 years and is a former Program Committee Chair and Associate Editor of JNeurosci. She has also served as a member of the Program Committee, Gruber International Award Selection Committee, and International Affairs Committee. Outside of SfN, she has served on editorial boards for various respected publications; is a former Learning, Memory, and Decision Neuroscience (LMDN) Study Section Review Panel Standing Member for the NIH; and has held roles with the Simons Foundation.

Incoming Councilor: Irene Tracey

Irene Tracey is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and Professor of Anaesthetic Neuroscience in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience, of which she was formerly a department lead and Nuffield Chair. She received both her MA and PhD from the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on mechanisms of human pain through basic, translational, and clinical methods using a mixture of neuroimaging techniques. Tracey’s goal is to better understand both acute and chronic pain experiences in humans, as well to determine how anesthetics create altered states of consciousness through multimodal neuroimaging.

Tracey has been an SfN member for 20 years and has served on the Program Committee and Neuroscience Meeting Software Test Group. She has also served on the Chair of the Delegates for Oxford University Press, is a Past President of FENS, past Council Member of the United Kingdom’s Medical Research Council, past Co-Chair and Member of Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) Panel, past Council Member of the British Neuroscience Association, and has held many additional positions within international neuroscience organizations.