The Annual German Graduate Schools of Neuroscience Poster Award

FUN is excited to partner with the German Graduate Schools of Neuroscience to offer this wonderful opportunity for a lucky undergraduate neuroscientist. The award this year will have two options for the winner to choose from.  The first option will be the week-long visit to German Neuroscience Programs that has been offered with past awards. The second available option will be a travel grant to cover round trip airfare for the student to attend a new FUN supported Neuroscience Summer Course that will be offered through the College of Charleston in Munich and Berlin in 2011.  More information about the summer course will be available at SfN this fall. This year's application is due October 15th, 2010.  The application is attached as a word document at the bottom of the page. 

To be eligible for this award, the nominee must currently be an undergraduate student. Each nominee must be sponsored by a FUN Member whose dues are current. Each sponsor may nominate only one student. For a poster to be considered, it must have been accepted for presentation by the nominee at the FUN Social and Poster Session at the Society for Neuroscience Meeting. The posters are judged on methodological approach, degree of difficulty, solidity/verifiability of data, contribution to "new knowledge", design and layout of the poster, and the ability of the student to answer questions regarding the project.

Please send completed nomination forms to Jen Yates (jryates@owu.edu) by October 15th, 2010.

2009 FUN/German Graduate Schools of Neuroscience Poster Award Winner

The first prize is a one week trip to Germany, visiting selected neuroscience hot spots. This year, yet another undergrad from Bates College, Maine, of Nancy Kleckner’s lab carried away the trophy: Miranda Gallo. She is pictured above , with Lutz Steiner of Medical Neurosciences, Berlin awarding the winning certificate.

Miranda’s complex and thorough research project on the central pattern generator of the pond snail (Helisoma trivolvis) and her professional presentation convinced the jurors unanimously. On the jury sat Prof. Dr. Horst Herbert of Tübingen, Prof. Dr. Josef Priller of Berlin, Dr. Erich Schneider of Munich and Dr. Felipe Opazo of Göttingen.

Runners-up were Adam Bledsoe of the University of South Dakota and Natasha Meyer of Davidson College. The prizes were awarded the same evening. A large and lively audience of undergrads and faculty watched the award ceremony during the FUN Social in Chicago on 19 October, hosted by FUN president Jennifer Yates and past president Christopher Korey.

Previous Winners

• 2007 Ke Xu (University of North Dakota)
  
• 2008 Greg Sousa (Bates College)
  
• 2009 Miranda Gallo (Bates College)
• 2010 Molly Kwiatkowski (Bowdoin College)