Leaderboard

Hey there! My name is Diego, and I'm a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. I'm passionate about understanding how our nervous system responds to inflammation and finding ways to improve neuronal survival after injury. I received my MD degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico School of Medicine in 2012, and then pursued a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences with a focus on neuropathology from the same institution. Apart from my research, I love sharing knowledge with people from all walks of life, and I'm particularly interested in promoting scientific awareness for the betterment of society. As a mentor, I strive to create an environment that fosters personal and academic growth, as well as overall well-being, for young scientists who are eager to learn and make a positive impact on the world.

Greetings fellow scientists!! My name is Hugo Sanchez-Castillo, I'm from Mexico and its wonderful to be a Community Leader for this year!!!... I'm a Scientist from Mexico, my bachelor was in Experimental Psychology at the National University of Mexico. At that time I encountered myself with the behavioral pharmacology and I decided to follow the effects of drugs on the behavior. After that I did my PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience looking for the pharmacological basis of Timing Behavior. In that exciting years I knew the Timing gang from New York and I decided to follow they in the University of Columbia for my Postdoctoral formation. During this time I shared thoughts, science, meals, music and more with excelent researchers of NY. After that, I returned to Mexico and founded the Neuropsychopharmacology and Timing Laboratory. Actually we are working in the neurobiology of stress and PTSD related affections, and obviously The pharmacology of timing behavior. Besides the research Im professor of Psychopharmacology and Biological Basis of Behavior. Personally, I love science, music, movies, science fiction, BBQ the Mexican food (yes, Im from Mexico and I love our food!!!) and I LOVE THE SFN MEETING!... I hope to engage nice chats and conversations about diversity, science, movies and more!!!....

Hello! My name is Dr. Brandon Coventry, and I'm very excited to be a member of the Neuronline community leaders! Before beginning my journey into neuroscience and neuroengineering, I was a touring musician, playing music across the United States with a wide variety of pop, funk, punk, and jazz professionals. During this time, I was also studying music at the University of Illinois which allowed for both study and a professional musician lifestyle. However, medical science and engineering was a persistent itch I knew I needed to scratch. I moved to St. Louis and received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Saint Louis University, doing research in biomedical signal processing. I then received my master's degree in electrical and computer engineering and a Ph.D. in Neural Engineering from Purdue University (go Boilers!) in 2021 where I studied novel optical deep brain stimulation technologies and artificially intelligent responsive neuromodulation. I am currently a postdoctoral research associate at the Wisconsin Institute for Transnational Neuroengineering (WITNe) housed in the Departments of Neurosurgery and Surgery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At WITNe, I am keenly interested in the neuroscience underlying neuromodulation and developing next-generation tools to facilitate more intricate insights into neural circuit function. I would love to continue in the academic world and am hoping to obtain an assistant professorship in the relatively near future. In my (increasingly decreasing) free time, I am still a freelance session musician and film composer with many of my works shown in venues across the world. I also have a keen interest in good coffee and am in constant search for the next best latte.

Hey y'all! Greetings from Nashville! ? My name is Ashley Horner, and I'm a Professor of Neuroscience at Frist College of Medicine at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. I received my PhD in Neuroscience from Tulane University in 2002 and spent almost 20 years studying basal ganglia pathways involved in methamphetamine-induced repetitive behaviors, as well as striatal circuits responsible for habitual methamphetamine self-administration. However, I have just recently transitioned from research to medical education. Frist College of Medicine is a new medical school, and we plan on opening our doors in the Fall 2024. So, now my days are filled with designing our neuroscience curriculum. It is very challenging, but also very exciting! I'm delighted to have the chance to discuss anything from addiction to curriculum design to major career transitions ?.

Hi Ramiro, Thank you for asking that. Here are some things I did in the past or do currently. 1) A blog. There I do not specifically talk about science. I talk about my life and my experiences, which include science. So, in other words I am talking about science but avoiding jargon, using examples and metaphors, using pictures. I find it useful to engage people on what I do and to see science is for everyone. 2) A Facebook page. I post things in my personal account but I also participate on pages that I created with other students to talk about science. For instance, there is a Facebook page created by researchers from Rio de Janeiro, they invited my to participate on. In this page, every other week a grad student or post-doc is invited to post about their thesis/dissertation but it needs to be in a format easy to read by the general public, like a story or a novel. I find the idea marvelous, as people seem to be very curious to read things we post and that also forces us to be more aware of how we communicate with people. We need to put ourselves in their shoes. 3) A Instagram profile. This seems to be the more effective way so far. Instagram has been growing more and more and with it people are very frequently using it for business not solely to "share pictures". Again, I use my personal account and also have profiles w/ other students. We have lab profiles, where we post things that we are working on in the lab, department profiles, etc, just give a few examples. Also, profiles created by students, we invite people to write to our page and also to talk. As people seem to be interested in Instagram lives, specially during pandemic situation, we try to use this tool as much as possible. I engage to participate in friends lives about science and they do the same, so we support each other and help to spread the news so more people can access the content we are posting.

That is a really good question! I am glad you brought it up Isis. I firmly believe we have to use social media in our favor. Specially in these times we are distant and the world future is relying more than ever in science and scientists. I do both of them, as we can reach maybe different public by doing it. So, I use my personal account to share important news and topics about what I work directly, as people that know me already are aware that I work for example with Alzheimer's and Pain, so I share content on it, from reliable sources, but most importantly I try to mention what has been done in the community by scientist that are not far away. I believe this way, people that are in my close circle can relate better to what we do and maybe get rid from that idea that science is something magical, distant, crazy... I also participate in projects were we create a Instagram profile directed to share science news and to answers peoples questions about science. In this sense, we usually reach more people, from different places. We gather a small group and everyone is responsible to feed the page and keep things going. I think this is a great way of using social media to spread reliable information and engage specially young people on our cause.

Hello SfN community! I am thrilled to be a Neuronline Community Leader. My name is Daisy Gallardo, and I'm a third year PhD Candidate in the Anatomy and Neurobiology department at the University of California, Irvine. My research focuses on neurodegeneration in an Alzheimer’s disease model, exploring how neuronal death could be delayed or reduced. I'm interested in mechanistic changes that occur as neurons age and how this could inform our approach to treating Alzheimer’s disease. My research interests align with my lifestyle interests, including topics like aging and non-pharmacological approaches to disease prevention, such as exercise. I’m an avid runner and participate in strength/running races, marathons and obstacle course races. I’m excited to engage with all of you in critical discussions and learn from diverse perspectives.

Hello everybody! My name is Valeria Muoio and I am a neurosurgeon at the University of Sao Paulo, in Brazil. I have always been a person who is unhappy with the outcome of some neurological diseases, especially in children, and for that reason, I got involved in research. I obtained my doctorate at the University of São Paulo with a period at Johns Hopkins University. Afterwards, I worked as a researcher at Charite University in Berlin. Currently, I work as a neurosurgeon and researcher at the University of São Paulo. I am fascinated by people, in their incredible richness and diversity. I believe I take this passion to my medical students, and try to show how vital neuroscience is - it not only explains our ailments but also explains who we are. Last year, I had the honor of participating as SFN's Community Leader, and I can say that being part of such a group changed many aspects of my career. For this year, I am excitedly preparing my department's Brain Awareness Week, where hundreds of students in different states of Brazil will participate. And of course, I intend to serve and participate in SFN with all the excellent opportunities and people it brings together. Cheers to all!

Hello everyone! My name is Katrina Armstrong and I am currently a PhD Candidate at the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Canada). I completed my MSc also at the University of Manitoba under the guidance of Drs. Katinka Stecina and Larry Jordan. My research is dedicated to understanding the descending neural circuits for movement, specifically the role that serotonin may play either in initiating or facilitating movement. I have always been passionate about sports, and I have recently begun participating in programs that bring sport to underrepresented communities. This January, I had the opportunity to play ice hockey with the Kenya Ice Lions in Nairobi. In combination with The Friendship League and The Urban Hockey Foundation, we were able to provide a large equipment donation to fuel the growth of hockey in Kenya. I look forward to our further discussions on the Neuronline platform!

Greetings from China! My name is Bin Yin and I got my PhD from Duke in 2016, studying neurobiological mechanisms of timing and time perception in animal models. Now I have my own research team in China, although a very small one with limited resources available. But this does not prevent me from pursuing high-quality research elucidating developmental (both psych & neuro) mechanisms underlying learning and behavior. I am excited to have this chance to discuss with you all the intriguing questions in relation to learning and behavior!

Greetings from Brazil! My name is Julia Araujo. I'm an undergraduate student at a medical school program in my country. I have been researching since High School and Neuroscience has been a passion of mine for even longer. I'm so excited that I got to join SfN's Community Leaders group! I hope to meet you all as much as I will be presenting more about myself in further posts.

I was trying to find a interview by Neil DeGrasse Tyson (and failed haha), where he broadly speaks about the resistance from the own scientific community with scientists that work on scientific awareness. As if we are not giving the correct amount of time to lab work when we do that, effectively going against the terms and conditions of fellowships and work contracts. However, I don't think this is something we must dedicate ourselves to exclusively in our free time! It is, like Rodrigo said, a role we must take as scientists, it is, indeed, our job. Have you found any resistance from PIs or institutions when dedicating to scientific awareness projects?

We should start by saying that everyone has their own definition of "work/life" balance. This goes with my previous comment. It depends on the expectations. I read the comments and see that some consider working weekends as part of their balance and others focused to be organized on weekdays. This is the same as the expectations from a PhD or postdoc. Some PIs believe that you should do experiments at the lab (including weekends) and write at home (no personal life!). This should NOT be our norm, but it is widely accepted.

As a neurosurgeon, I feel deeply dissatisfied with the treatment available to treat our patients. We certainly need to increase our therapeutic arsenal. I believe that this dissatisfaction is the driving force behind my work (I believe that many colleagues share this feeling) I currently have 3 lines of work and research 1. neurooncology: we look for therapeutic targets for childhood tumors that are more prevalent in pediatrics, such as medulloblastoma and ependymoma 2. cerebral palsy and movement disorders (especially in children). Children with cerebral palsy have many problems with locomotion and motility (especially spasticity and dystonia). The most commonly used treatments today (drugs and surgeries such as DBS (deep brain stimulation) still need to be greatly improved. My team is researching new interventions in the connectome of these children, such as new targets, microfocused ultrasound and different brain stimulation techniques. 3.Education: training new generations is a fundamental factor for the development of neuroscience, as well as ensuring a healthy environment where minds can offer their best. My passion is to help new neurosurgeons and healthcare students embrace neuroscience in a happy and responsible way

Hello Neuonliners! I am honored by the opportunity to contribute to this wonderful community and am looking forward to serving as a community leader for this year. I’m Jaya Viswanathan, a neuroscientist, engineer, author, and artist born and raised in India. I earned a Master’s in neuroscience and a Doctorate in cognitive neuroscience before working as a post-doctoral fellow. I am currently a KGS Contractor Program Analyst in the Division of Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging where I support program development to achieve the research goals of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. This includes efforts to improve the rigor and reproducibility in published research through the Alzheimer’s disease Preclinical Efficacy Database (AlzPED), as well as using open science and big data approaches to address the big neuroscience questions. Apart from my scientific pursuits, or rather, in parallel to them, I have been passionate about communicating science and making scientific concepts more accessible to a lay audience. In service to that goal, I authored and illustrated an award-winning neuroscience and neuroart book for children, Baby Senses: A Sensory Neuroscience Primer for All Ages (https://babysensesbook.com/). I also wrote a neuronline article about neuroscience education (https://neuronline.sfn.org/outreach/inspiring-young-scientists-through-art-science-and-poetry), and have been a guest on numerous educational video /audio podcast episodes in the service of the same goal (https://babysensesbook.com/brains-art-and-more/). As a Neuronline community leader I hope to contribute to generating resources for neuroscience communication, supporting career development for diverse neuroscientists, developing resources for conducting rigorous and reproducible science, and enhancing the dialogue between neuroscience and society on various issues.

First, I want to say to all scientists that science matters, that even in these complicated conditions, science matters. When I saw the video I felt sadness for all situations, but at the same time, I felt that there is hope whereas we stand for science. In the same way that the Ukranian Fellows stand and resist for science. In Mexico, we don't have this kind of problem, but we have different adversities that change society and science (drug cartels, natural disasters, social movements, strikes, etc.). In my case, we faced a huge strike in the 2000 year, I was a student and I was researching with rats and drug discrimination. In the beginning, everybody thought that the strike would be only a few days. However, after two months things changed, the strike did not show possibilities of change and all the researchers and academics started to worry about the future. I remember that we went to talk with the heads of the movement and we explained why we should continue with the science. At this moment we were so nervous because in the past, one social clamor released all the experimental subjects and that was a possible choice for the heads of the strike. After a few days, the heads of the strike told us that we were allowed to continue with the experimental work, but there would be no external resources or participation of any person or entity. We accepted those terms and we did everything (the experiments, the training, the cleaning, the maintenance of the building, the baths, etc!!). The strike was for one year, in that year we stood and resisted for science, It was hard but at the end, we didn't stop science. Finally, I would like to add that science is part of society, if something happens in society of course it's going to impact science. We should be prepared and ready to stand for science and the changes in our society.

I gained significant knowledge in characterizing microglial activation and polarization in vivo and in vitro central nervous system injury models. As a postdoctoral researcher, I have continued to enhance my skills in examining microglia activation and neurotoxicity in different models of neuronal damage by utilizing molecular biology, biochemistry, and confocal microscopy techniques. I aim to unravel the molecular mechanisms governing microglia activation and how immunoregulatory processes influence their behavior. By identifying signals regulating their activation, we hope to develop targeted immunomodulatory strategies to mitigate neuroinflammation and its detrimental effects, ultimately enhancing brain resilience.

Neurological disorders involving dysfunction or deregulation of neural circuits such as Parkinson's disease, Epilepsy, and others are chronic and progressive diseases that severely impact quality of life. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has emerged as an effective and efficacious treatment paradigm for these "circuitopathies" as well as a powerful tool for exploring basic functionality of neural circuits. Despite DBS' clinical and scientific successes, it is fraught with off target stimulation and a lack of understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms of effective stimulation. My research centers around the development of new neural stimulation and recording tools to better understand and translate neuromodulation therapies. To this end, I have worked in the following areas: 1. Optical DBS to constrain stimulation only to local microcircuits implicated in disease. 2. Development of chronic small and large animal implantable pulse generators (IPGs) to better mimic clinical DBS practice in rodent and pig models. 3. Study of differential thalamocortical dynamics and thalamic contributions to traveling cortical waves 4. Development of awake behaving calcium imaging tools in DBS rat models to better understand thalamic entrainment of DBS stimuli. 5. AI-enabled closed-loop neuromodulation tools that learn subject neural dynamics in real time to provide target stimulation only when needed. My research is driven by a desire to serve those whose neurological conditions currently have no recourse to current medicine. I am equal parts engineer and neuroscientist and work to translate new neuromodulation tools which work with, and not against, the nervous system to provide safer and more efficacious medical tools.

The first law is that a robot shall not harm a human, or by inaction allow a human to come to harm. The second law is that a robot shall obey any instruction given to it by a human The third law is that a robot shall avoid actions or situations that could cause it to come to harm itself. Isaac Asimov´s laws

Hi all.....I think the best advice from my supervisor was try to FOCUS. Focus on what you are doing and move slowly towards your careers goals. Also he advised me to expand my network and collaborate with others. I apply these advices till now and I have a motto of : United We Concur.....so I am always eager to expand my professional network and keen to start new collaboration.

Once more, I loved the topic brought for discussion! Though it's such a hard task choosing just a single piece of advice, I believe it has to do with something I've recently heard from one of our coordinators (here at my university): "Once you're in doubt between options to pursue research at, just write a piece of review." Here I justify that, although it has much to do with the situation I'm currently at - and I highlight it, just as I've said in my latest post, here at the Community Leader's forum - I'm truthfully in the opinion of having it applied to further circumstances in any scientific career. For an instance, it doesn't matter how much you already know about a certain subject (or its subdivisions) going back to the simplicity - just as a review article might look to be like - helps us figuring out better options and visualising the scenario from multiple perspectives. Certainly, from plenty of help I've received throughout High School and short time of undergraduation, so far, I've recently started to realise, whenever we're in doubt, advices start coming up as both a assurance (a relief, whenever it coincides with our personal choices) and as a new way of seeing things. Nonetheless, in this last case, it's impressive how much we got to learn, doesn't matter how old we are. Assuredly, anyone is able to teach and to learn. (Is that a second advice I've had already received? I guess so.) Back to the piece I've decided to emphasize, along with summing up, while picking up my path of research at college, the review article I prompt myself on writing can be published by the end! Which scientist doesn't like the feeling of publishing our works? Thank you, professor, for your advising!

Hej! Greetings from Sweden. My name is Mathew Birdsall Abrams. I am the Director of Science and Training at the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF), an organization dedicated to the development, evaluation, and endorsement of standards and best practices that embrace the principles of open, FAIR, and citable neuroscience. INCF also provides training on how standards and best practices facilitate reproducibility and enables the publishing the entirety of research outputs, including data and code. I am recovering experimental spinal cord injury researcher turned neuroinformatics enthusiast. I am passionate about open science, neurotechnology, and FAIR data management. I look forward to discussing with you all.

Hola!!! My name is Hugo Sanchez-Castillo... Im from México and I'm Professor/researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. My research is focused to understand the neurobiology pf PTSD and the stress related disorders. However I love the behavioral pharmacology and timing behavior either. I like to discuss about science and I hope to contribute to this group and to build bridges with the different groups.

Hey everyone! My name is Valéria Muoio , I am a neurosurgeon based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I did my PhD at the University of São Paulo, with a sandwich period at Johns Hopkins University. I also worked as a scientist at the Charite University in Berlin- Germany. I split my time between the surgical center, the laboratory and teaching at the medical school in Sao Paulo. I believe that such activities are complementary and I think it's beautiful when we transmit this complementarity to the new generations. Exchanging experiences as human beings (not just our technical knowledge) improves our craft and our career perception. I hope I can contribute to the group and I can't wait to learn from everyone.

2014 LATP Fellow, @Maira BiccaPhD, will lead a discussion on Promoting Science Advocacy in Your Community on Thursday, May 28 from 10:00a.m. to 11:00a.m. EDT. This live chat will take place on the LATP Community, in the thread below. Maíra Assunção Bicca is currently a Neurosurgery postdoctoral (PD)-fellow at the Sleep and Pain Research Lab, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA. Previously, Neurobiology PD-fellow at Northwestern University, Evanston, USA and Immunopharmacology PD-fellow at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. Graduated in Pharmacy (2010), Master (2012) and Doctor (2016) of Pharmacology, with emphasis in Neuroscience - UFSC, Brazil. Research on the cause-consequence effects in between sleep disturbance and pain sensation with projects focused on the underlying mechanisms by which one affects the other. Research interests also include the amyloid-beta induced toxicity in a variety of AD experimental models and Clinical trials. Collaborator in a number of projects that engage Brazilian and International researchers concerning the immunobiology of viruses and bacteria, pain, inflammation, PTSD, anxiety and depression, Parkinson's disease, and cancer. Can't attend this chat live? That's OK! You can start the conversation by adding your questions/comments now or continue the conversation later by adding your questions/comments afterwards!

Hi Maira, Thanks for sharing! Any tips for how to create or improve our science contents for social media? Could you recommend us some websites to find more information? Hi, I'll answer here both Ricardo and Kathia 'cause they have kind of similar questions. First of all, I am doing fine Ricardo, thank you for asking. Sometimes, I feel like my brain has left my body and sometimes I feel like my brain can't stop..I blame the pandemics...lol Lots of exercising, reading, watching videos, listening to music, and videochating with family and friends to stay sane. Hope you are doing fine as well. I'll answer here both you and Kathia 'cause you guys have kind of similar questions. Well, I do not use particular websites to create content like videos, jingles, etc but I do use apple and windows video and picture editors to add figures, gifs, color, music, to my posts. I try to be simple but fun in general. Here are two tips on tools that help me create content: 1. Mindthegraph. Is a platform to create infographs, charts, etc. The drawings are so cool and so colorful, you can create many things using their templates. When the figures and content you present are nice and clean, people will pay attention. 2. Resultados digitais. Instagram: @resdigitais. They are specialized in create content for social media, to engage people. I watch videos from them, check their memes, to get inspired and try to apply that to my content. As they are very directed to social media they are frequently on top pf their game about memes that are "trends for now". I found interesting and efficient to use these memes, that people really like, to communicate science.

Hi Raquel, Sure. I graduated from the department of Pharmacology at UFSC in South of Brazil. There, we had a solid group working on Neuroscience. We organized few events for different public. For instance, we organized a science fair about the brain physiology and pathology, focusing on kids and seniors and we brought this event to a shopping mall. Another example, we used to promote summer courses to community high school students on drug discovery, actions and side effects. Of course, you need financial support for these types of events, that is why we were trying to engage local small business to contribute with us.

2018 LATP Fellow, @Yorka Munoz PhD, will lead a discussion on Work/Life Balance and Managing During COVID-19 on Friday, April 17 from 12:00p.m. to 1:00p.m. EDT. This live chat will take place on the LATP Community, in the thread below. Yorka Munoz is a Biologist, MSc. and PhD in Molecular, Cellular Biology and Neuroscience from the University of Chile. Nowadays, she works as a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She is interested in elucidating the role of astrocytes in memory processes and Alzheimer’s disease. During her PhD, she obtained two fellowship to attend to courses (3rd ISN Latin American school of Advance Neurochemistry (2014) and 10th IBRO-USCRC Canadian School of Neuroscience (2016)), three International Travel Grants to attend to conferences (13th ADPD (Austria, 2017), NeuroFrance 2017 (France, 2017) and 26th ISN-ESN Biennal Meeting (France, 2017) and she was a Latin American Training Program fellow in 2018. Dr. Munoz will discuss the importance of keeping a balance between work and personal life, talking about her experience during her PhD program. Can't attend this chat live? That's OK! You can start the conversation by adding your questions/comments now or continue the conversation later by adding your questions/comments afterwards!

Since we are in the topic, for the mothers and fathers in the thread, Nature did an article on balancing work/childcare during the pandemic recently! https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01060-x

Hi Maria! You mentioned two tools (Asana and Slack) what are this two about? how do you use these in your lab?

Are anyone here feeling a pressure form your sponsor to be productive and write papers and do webseminars and be the most productive ever in this quarentine? I have some friends are very anxious during quarentine and are not handling this. Do you have any advice for that or some similar is happening to you @Yorka Munoz

I have the same feeling. Different labs/projects put different expectations on your productivity. I had good work/life balance in my Master's but switch lab and project and fell short during most of my PhD. I think it's important to set your own personal boundaries on what you are capable of delivering and try not to rely so much on external expectation.

This is a great question to consider and discuss, because AI has the potential to exacerbate the existing rigor and reproducibility crisis, or to ameliorate it. As a contractor doing Program Development at NIA, I work on the Alzheimer's Preclinical Efficacy Database, or AlzPED (https://alzped.nia.nih.gov/) and analysis of publications in the field of testing Alzheimer's therapeutics in animal models shows the trends of poor rigor and reporting practices that are not getting better over time (atleast not fast enough). A crucial aspect of AI/ML models is that junk-in means junk-out - that is, the integrity of the data that models are trained on will dictate the utility and validity of these models. In considering how AI may intersect with rigor and reproducibility - it does come down to how scientists may use any other tool. Researchers, journals, non-profits, and funding agencies need to work to improve the rigor and reproducibility crisis, and as suggested previously, develop best practices, standards, and accountability measures for AI in parallel.

I'd like to raise 2 points for consideration and discussion of this topic. 1) I've learned a lot about neuroscience communication since the publication of my book, Baby Senses. I've been trying to learn from the artist and children's fiction writers communities how to make science more engaging. I often find that non-fiction can come across as dry and boring while fiction - even while being factual - can come across as enchanting and interesting. I've myself been using principles of story telling, art, and narrative creative non-fiction to get a lay audience interested in science, and have, for BAW 2024, used puppets to engage very young audiences in sensory neuroscience (in a collaborative project). 2) While communicating to communities traditionally under-represented in STEM and neuroscience, it is important to go in with a nuanced and considered approach. Once, when I was TAing a summer high school biology/histology class for first nations students during my Masters, I came out of the class thinking I had been incomprehensible. I kept attempting to make the session interactive and waiting for their response without understanding that culturally it is unusual for first nation communities to participate in interactions without "electing" a representative to speak for the group. This was very eye opening for me - when I read the teacher evaluations, the students still rated my class as one of the best they'd been to, which was completely contrary to my impressions. All this to say, when I approach neuroscience communication, I try to meet people where they are at and use a nuanced approach since minorities in science can feel easily discouraged from neuroscientific careers and a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work.

Dr. Nana Voitenko and her lab were making an effort to continue their research, in any way possible, while fearing for their own and other family members' lives. The effort to save cell cultures, chemicals, and other research materials during the power outage while dealing with the immense mental stress brought on by the war emphasizes their dedication to science. This is truly inspiring as a PhD student when, currently, my only constraint for scientific progress is time. Their experiences put into perspective the ease with which I can continue doing research on a daily basis. The biggest takeaway from this, regarding how to navigate obstacles in research, regardless of how minor, is to adapt and pivot. Focus on areas that you can control or make progress on. One example is Dr. Voitenko's transition to developing a "European style" medical school to enhance the training of medical students. She also made use of SfN’s amazing community and led a meaningful change to the issue of male scientists needing funding but not being able to leave the country.

Hello everyone! My name is Lavanya and I am a medical student from India. My budding interest in Neurology brought me here. I am excited to be a part of this amazing online community and to be a Neuronline community leader. As a Neuronline community leader, I hope to actively engage in conversations and learn from everyone's perspectives. During my first year at medical school, I had the most fun learning neuroanatomy. The dissection of the brain and its structures fascinated me. It was much later, during the COVID-19 pandemic that I first realized my interest in Neurology. What began as a casual exploration of online courses transformed into a genuine passion for Behavioral Neurology. I believe that there is a vast scope of research at the intersection of neuroscience and behavior. As I nurtured this interest, I became more curious and observant of my daily life. I was inspired to conduct a study to find the prevalence of migraine, its disability, and its impact on sleep quality among undergraduate medical students. I am currently an intern and have just begun my journey to residency. Although I am not actively involved with any ongoing neuroscience research right now, I am excited to learn from all the community leaders worldwide and understand the scope of research going on in the field. I am enthusiastic to interact with experienced scientists and learn their worldview, as well I am excited at the prospect of any collaboration. Apart from my curriculum, I enjoy cooking and baking. I also occasionally make short video content. I believe the food we eat not only affects our gut health but, also majorly affects our mood and energy levels. My goal for this year is to integrate my passion for cooking with my interest in Neuroscience. Looking forward to interacting with everyone throughout the year!

Firstly, I just want to emphasize how happy I am to discuss something related to diversity once more! Linking my emotions to an actual written content, I share the opportunity I'm having as a Community Leader. Just from the part of my context I'm happy to share - as a latina and undergraduate student - it's amazing to interact with such incredible researchers, doctors and all of you here at SfN! Yours experiences, kindness and engagement make it all amazing! After all, amidst the struggles - once there's no quick modification on the demographics of the scientific community as a whole - smaller steps might be the source to rely on. Surely, it's a scenario I'm gratefully finding at many science and academia groups but, specifically, extremely happy to see it happening here at SfN. Resources, such as content (incredible stories and articles) and the creation of programs - like the Community Leader opportunity for Early Career scientists - are mere exemples on how I gladly see change beginning to appear, though at my local and immediate surroundings. Engaging people from all backgrounds - degrees and life experiences included - might be just the beginning, but it has been done thoroughly. Doing our own bests it's not all that matters. Still, it represents the will and the courage for the changes we are going to see on the future.

As neuroscientists, we will drop/cancel/arrange life around experiments, grant proposals, manuscript submissions, etc... without hesitating; but we stop and think about the impact of participating in a passion outside of work will have on work. For me, working from home during covid helped me to see the imbalance and provided me with the time and opportunity to address the imbalance. I have given myself permission to pursue my passions outside of work with the same commitment and dedication that I have given to my career. It was not easy, and I felt a lot of guilt at first (almost like I was having an affair on work if I chose prioritise another passion).

I have always subscribed to the notion that the word "fail" is an acronym for "first attempt in learning" which in my opinion sets a more positive tone and calibrates my expectations of myself (think about learning to ride a bike: it took several attempts and a few stumbles along the way to master the skill). Also, I believe that it is important to have something else in ones life that you are passionate about (family, cooking, sports, etc...) and that you try to create a balance between this passion and neuroscience; so that when the professional failures arise (which they will), you have the other passion to reaffirm your self worth. I hope this makes sense!

Hi! I've been working with translational neuroscience. I am part of a multidisciplinary team (with neurosurgeons, neurologists, neuropediatricians, scientists in the basic area) and we work so that the research developed in our laboratories can reach our patients. I am directly involved on two main fronts: brain tumors and cerebral palsy. At the university, we are studying study optimization techniques and increased performance in our students.

Hi all. My name is Soaleha Shams and I am a Canadian neuroscientist. I study neurobiology of zebrafish social behaviour and use it as a tool to model typical socialization, as well as atypical social behaviour that is part of human disorders such as depression, social anxiety, and autism. After a BSc in Biology and Psychology (University of Toronto in Mississauga) and a MSc in Neuroscience (Western University, London, Ontario), I did my doctoral work in Behavioural Neuroscience (University of Toronto) under supervision of Dr. Robert Gerlai, looking at effects of social isolation in zebrafish. I did my 1st postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Lars Westberg (Pharmacology dept, Gothenburg University, Sweden), where I investigated effects of genetic and pharmacological manipulation of oxytocin receptors on zebrafish social interaction. Last year, I moved to the Mayo Clinic (Minnesota, USA) to a Stress Biology lab with Dr. Karl Clark. I am currently learning about using CRISPR-Cas9 and other gene-editing technologies to study glucocorticoid receptors and their role in zebrafish social and stress behaviour. Outside the lab, I love teaching and science advocacy, and I hope to play a role in future of neuroscience policy-making in Canada and beyond.

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Hello Maria! I think that one of our most important roles as scientists is to effectively communicate science and raise awareness in our communities that science is important and that it has to be supported by public administrations. And most of the time I feel that we don't know how to do so or we're not good at it. So, how do we learn to be good communicators? Another topic I'd like to bring: Do you think that after this pandemic people will be more aware about the role of science in our society?

For theses past events where did you get the financial support? Did your departament help somehow?

Good morning Maira and everyone! what types of online tools can be created to spread science?

Hi Maria! In your experience, what is most effective: using our personal social media accounts to do some scientific awareness and communication or creating actual projects to that end?

For sure! There are days and days, but as Maria was mentioning before, I feel like a real struggle for woman that have kids, as it is very hard to focus and keep schedules. We all react differently as well to the isolation because of our different personalities and coping behavior, but I also fee because it seems it will be like this for a while at some point or another everyone will kind of loose their minds a bit.

I am also working on a review article but it's been going slowly as home life is taxing having a toddler who demands constant attention lol

I was working in Alzheimer's disease context but I was working in Parkinson's disease too because it was part of the lab grant.

Hi everybody, it is a pleasure for me to discuss this topic today