UCC Neuroscientists make their mark at Young Neuroscientists Symposium

8 Sep 2016

A busy day for Neuroscience researchers in the Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience who organised, presented and received awards at Neuroscience Ireland's 'Young Neuroscientists Symposium 2016' held in Trinity College Dublin on September 1st.

Dr. Shane Hegarty and Dr. Anand Gururajan, Neuroscientists in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience were members of the Young Neuroscientists Symposium 2016 Organising Committee, whose aim was to provide a platform for young Irish based neuroscientists to showcase their research in an engaging and supportive environment. The organisers are confident that the symposium will encourage and enable collaborative efforts amongst the young neuroscience community in Ireland.

The Department was well represented with its young researchers presenting their work at the symposium. Katie Togher, Amnah Alshangiti, Shauna Wallace Fitzsimons, Brunno Levone, Melissa Hanni and Lorraine Conroy exhibited their research as poster presentations, congratulations to Shauna Wallace Fitzsimons who was awarded ‘best poster presentation by a postgraduate’ at the event. Rachel Furlong presented the work from her PhD research as an oral presentation.

Special congratulations to Dr Shane Hegarty who was awarded the prestigious ‘Neuroscience Ireland Early Career Award’ and delivered his research findings in a lecture to the symposium delegates. 

The event featured also three keynote speakers representing clinical, basic science and industry including Dr. Dara Cannon (NUI Galway), Dr. Lee Dawson (Astex Pharmaceuticals) and Prof. Dr. Alon Chen, Director and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry. The YNS symposium also featured an interactive career panel discussion which allowed attendees to interact with faculty members, including Dr. Stella Vlachou (DCU), as well as industry representatives, including Dr. Niamh Murphy (MSL, Novartis).

For more information about the event, visit the YNS symposium website: https://neuroscienceireland.com/young-neuroscientists-symposium-1st-sept-2016/.