Lila Wollman's Conference Summary

     Lila Wollman
     Ph.D. Candidate
     Physiological Sciences

     Conference Summary
     Society for Neuroscience
     San Diego, CA

Thanks to the support of the Herbert E. Carter Travel Award, I was able to attend the 46th annual Society for Neuroscience (SfN) conference in San Diego, California. This conference is the world’s largest gathering of scientists and physicians devoted to studying and understanding the nervous system, with a particular focus on translational and collaborative research. This year, there were over 29,000 scientists and exhibitors in attendance from around the world. The meeting featured 9 poster sessions and hundreds of lectures, as well as job fairs and workshops on professional and career development.
The SfN Conference was an important experience for me at this time in particular because I am in the final year of my PhD training. The other conferences I have attended have not had a strong neuroscience presence, and the SfN conference gave me the opportunity to present my research to experts in my field of study. I presented my work as a poster in the “Neural Control of Respiration I” session. Many people stopped by my poster and I received valuable feedback on my current research and had exciting discussions about potential future directions.  
At this conference, I was able to attend lectures both on my field of study, as well as other areas that relate to my research. I also visited displays of the most state of the art tools used in electrophysiology and brain slice preparation, which furthered my understanding of the more technical aspects of neuroscience research.
Overall, the SfN Conference was a positive and educational experience, which broadened my understanding of neuroscience and strengthened my passion for the field. I am very grateful to the Herbert E. Carter Travel Award Program for allowing me this opportunity.