Symposium on Neuroscience and Behavior

The Center organizes international symposia on topics that are of current interest to audiences from both the research and broader academic communities. The world’s leading experts join researchers from the Center to present their most exciting and recent work. Previous symposia focused on the topics of Childhood Obesity and Cognition, Sex Differences: From Neuroscience to the Clinic and Beyond and most recently The Therapeutic Use of Psychedelic Drugs: Legal, Policy and Neuroscientific Perspectives, which was held with the support of the Washington College of Law and AU’s School of Public Affairs.  

Annual Center Retreat

All members of the Center for Neuroscience and Behavior are invited to an annual retreat. Here members will have the opportunity to present research findings and ideas with a special emphasis on identifying areas of overlap or synergy that could be the basis for collaboration. A second purpose is to report Center activities and plans to the membership for their review and evaluation.

Journal Club

In conjunction with the Behavior, Cognition, and Neuroscience (BCaN) graduate training program, the Center coordinates a bi-weekly meeting for graduate students and faculty. A different participant each week will select a recent empirical paper for all attendees to read and discuss. For most meetings, the papers discussed investigate the effects of neural or physiological manipulations on behavioral outcomes.

NEUR 489/689: Neuroscience as a Profession
This course, sponsored by the Center, aims to teach graduate students in the Behavior, Cognition and Neuroscience (BCaN) program and advanced undergraduate neuroscience majors about professional skills needed and career paths available in the fields of neuroscience and experimental psychology. Topics included scientific writing, scientific presentations, publishing manuscripts, reviewing manuscripts, writing grants, finding a job, and the uses of social media in science. As special feature of the course, guest lecturers from around the country lead seminars that introduce students to careers in scientific research, funding, outreach, and service. The guest lecturers also give separate talks or lead discussions that are open to the entire AU community.

Summer Graduate Student Research Awards
Part of the mission of the CNB is to support the research and training of Ph.D. students who work on projects that are supervised by their Center faculty advisors. To help achieve this aim, the Center offers summer research awards on a competitive basis, for Ph.D. students to work in Center laboratories during the summer.

Graduate Student Travel Awards
The Center provides competitive awards for graduate students of Center members to present their research at professional meetings and to receive training that is not available at AU. Funds may be used to defray the costs of travel, lodging, meals, registration and other fees.