NSF Award
1606984
This award will provide support to US-based students and post-doctoral fellows and junior scientists to attend the 2016 International Congress on Neuroethology. This conference is recognized as the major, mid-size meeting in Neuroethology, bringing together outstanding senior and junior scientists for discussions of the recent advances in the field. Invited speakers across many areas of neuroethology, will present their findings on how the activity of animal brains give rise to natural behaviors. The meeting feature sessions that will showcase how biological solutions inform new conceptual and technological advances in bio-inspired robotics, smart machines and neural modeling. The results presented at the meeting will have the potential to guide future developments in multiple areas, including neurally inspired design of engineered systems that will have considerable societal benefits.<br/><br/>The intellectual merit of this meeting derives from its small size, which promotes interactions between participants, and the assembly of many top scientists whose research spans neurobiology, engineering and neuroethology. It spans a wide variety of experimental systems and focuses on areas of exceptional activity or promise. This combination leads to fruitful comparative analyses, raises new questions about underlying mechanisms and often leads to new collaborations. By maximizing both formal discussion and informal interactions, the meeting will highlight exciting new developments in neuroethology and engineering approaches in neurobiology. With respect to broader impacts, this meeting will benefit the larger community in multiple ways. First, it will help train and inspire the next generation of scientists, by exposing students and postdoctoral fellows to exciting science and scientists. Second, special mentoring sessions will be organized to help junior researchers make informed choices about scientific careers in academia and beyond. Finally, a concerted effort will be made to recruit scientists from under-represented groups.
