I got back from the annual Society for Neuroscience (SfN) conference a few weeks ago and I wanted to share what I was up to!

Professional Development workshop

I’m an associate member of the SfN Neuroscience Scholars Program (NSP), and had the chance to attend a pre-conference workshop on “Cultivating Professionalism and Excellence in the Research Landscape” which was led by Drs. Sherilynn Black, PhD, Claire Horner-Devine, PhD and Marguerite Matthews, PhD. We talked about what professionalism means to us, how our biases (implicit and explicit) affect how we view things, and how to grow our networks. We also talked about mentoring in research, which is extremely important but not always addressed clearly in graduate school. You’ll very rarely see a mentor that meets all your individual/personal criteria as a mentee, and that’s ok. Science and research are a team effort, which is why networks are so necessary for success.

P.S: peers can be mentors too! Shout to Albert Lam for always being willing to listen to my molecular biology questions!

Diversity Poster Session

The diversity poster session is always great. Ever since joining, I’ve been invited to participate at every SfN meeting: in 2017 for earning a Trainee Professional Development Award (TPDA) and in 2018 as part of joining NSP as an associate member, and this year as well. It’s a great chance to practice presenting one final time before your big poster session. Plus, its shorter (2 hours) and more laid back (free food!) than other sessions.

Daily Poster Sessions

Literally thousands of presentations going on from 8am to 5pm every single day.

I usually present on Sundays, which I like because I have a lot of energy/enthusiasm early on during conferences. I was in the Sunday afternoon session (1pm-5pm) with a specific time to be at my poster (4pm-5pm) but I like being there for the entire session. This year I had more visitors than ever before, which was nice!

Meeting with collaborators

At this year’s SfN, I had the chance to meet with our amazing collaborator at the University of Bordeaux, Dr. Eric Boue-Grabot! He’s been working on purinergic receptors and cross-talk for over 20 years, and it was great discussing our project with him! We’re currently in the process of drafting a manuscript for publication!

Every day there were 3 hour nanosymposia where presenters were given 15 minutes to talk about their research on a given topic. In the evenings, SfN puts together special lectures on a wide variety of interesting topics. Student seminars aren’t that bad compared to these: over 10,000 neuroscientists from vastly different areas watching you on three giant projector screens. NSP members, international scholars, and DSPAN scholars also got recognized by the President of SfN!