Previous Graduate Student and Post-doctoral Trainee Travel Award Winners
Chapters Professional Development Grant 2012
Students of Brain Research (SOBR, http://www.sobrnetwork.org/) is an academic and social network that aims to bring together students and early career brain researchers working across multiple research centres in Melbourne, Australia. In May 2012, SOBR hosted a professional development dinner, which was funded with the help of a $2,000 Professional Development Grant awarded by the Melbourne Chapter of Society for Neuroscience.
The theme of the dinner was “Communicating science to the public: Bridging the gap between scientific research and the community”, and our major aims were to discuss the importance of communicating research to the public, as well as facilitating networking between our student researchers and local and national media. Our guest speakers were Prof Peter Doherty, Nobel Laureate and former Australian of the Year, who shared his experiences in working with the media; Australian paediatric neurologist Professor Ingrid Scheffer, winner of the L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Award, who discussed the importance of self-promotion within science as well as to the greater community, and Sophie Scott, National Medical Reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, who talked about what makes a great science story.
The event was a huge success, selling out in under a week and attended by 125 (mostly PhD) students from over 15 research centres across Melbourne. In addition, 29 VIP guests attended from the local and national media, state government, advocacy groups, professional societies, and sponsoring institutes.
Feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive, with the quality of the guest speakers and networking opportunities particularly praised. Our media VIPs also expressed how valuable they found the evening, as they had the opportunity to speak to researchers working on a huge range of topics in the fields of neuroscience, psychiatry, and psychology, and left with many leads for future stories.
SOBR would like to thank Society for Neuroscience for their invaluable contribution to the event, which brought brain researchers together, and their research out into the community.