Alyssa Coyne Conference Summary

Alyssa Coyne
Ph.D. Candidate
Neuroscience GIDP

 Conference Summary
Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting
Chicago, Illinois
October 17-21, 2016

This year I attended the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) conference in Chicago, Illinois from October 17-21. SfN is held annually and attracts neuroscientists from across the globe to present, share, and discuss their work. Presentations at this conference come in a variety of formats ranging from plenary talks, symposia, mini and nano symposia, and poster sessions. I am honored to have received the Herbert E. Carter Travel award that allowed me to travel to Chicago, IL and present my work amongst my fellow neuroscience researchers.

During my time at the conference I attended multiple plenary talks where I learned about the work being conducted by leaders in their respective fields. Though these talks were only tangentially related to my PhD work, I learned a great deal about neuroscience techniques and research in other neuroscience subfields. I also attended symposia in which research more directly related to my work was presented in the form of shorter 15-20 minute talks. Of note were the symposia related to motor neuron disease and neurotransmitter release. In addition, I attended multiple poster sessions where I actively engaged in discussions with the poster presenters about their work in various models of neurodegenerative disease, my specialized neuroscience subfield. From attending these sessions and interacting with presenters I learned a great deal about the current research being conducted. I also had the opportunity to discuss new techniques and experiments that I plan to apply to my own research to further my understanding of my own PhD project.

I was given the opportunity to present my work during a poster session at SfN. I spent the majority of this session explaining my poster to other researchers and discussing my findings and their implications. I was given invaluable feedback and suggestions on my work. Additionally, my work received much praise and excited others in the field. This opportunity also enabled me to network with others studying neurodegeneration as I actively start to look for post-doctoral opportunities. I was able to make valuable connections that will assist me as I continue in my research career.

The experiences I had at this conference were made possible by the Herbert E. Carter travel award. I am very grateful for this opportunity and look forward to returning to SfN in the future and sharing my new findings.