Division of Neurobiology, Neuroethology and Sensory Biology

Fall Newsletter 2019

6 min readNov 1, 2019

Message from the Chair
Message from the Program Officer
Message from the Secretary
Message from the Student/Postdoctoral Affairs Committee Representative

Message from the Chair, Mike Baltzley, chair.dnnsb@sicb.org

I hope you are all looking forward to the 2020 SICB annual conference in Austin! Jeff Riffell, the DNNSB Program Officer, and the rest of the SICB Program Committee have put together a great schedule of presentations, symposia, and events for the meeting. Details of the schedule that are specific to our division can be found in Jeff’s newsletter piece below.

**Austin, Texas (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)**

Our Best Student Presentation (BSP) oral competition will be composed of eight talks that are held in a single session. Please make an effort to attend this session to support our student members. As the meeting approaches, I will be making a call for judges for our BSP awards. As usual, we will have a large number of oral and poster presentations and will therefore need many DNNSB members who are willing to judge presentations.

Our Division is also co-sponsoring five symposia at the upcoming meeting in Austin. I’ll talk more about the symposia planned for the 2021 meeting in Washington, D.C. at the DNNSB Members Meeting, but now is the time to start thinking about symposia proposals for the 2022 meeting in Phoenix! Please feel free to reach out to me or Jeff before, during, or after the meeting in Austin to discuss your ideas.

This coming spring we’ll be having an election for the next DNNSB Chair. DNNSB Chair is a three-year position, and our by-laws restrict the current chair from running for re-election…which means we’re looking for candidates! Jim Murray (james.murray@csueastbay.edu) has agreed to chair our nominating committee to recruit candidates. The DNNSB Chair position is not only a great opportunity to help move the division forward, but it’s also a great opportunity to help direct the future of SICB. Please contact Jim or me if you are interested in running for DNNSB Chair or if you want to nominate someone else!

Lastly, the DNNSB officers will be putting together our agenda for the annual members meeting in the coming weeks. If you have items you want to see discussed or acted on, please email them to me. You can contact me at Chair.DNNSB@sicb.org.

I look forward to seeing you all in Austin!

Nominating Committee Information: The DNNSB Chair position will be on the SICB Election Ballot this spring. If you are interested in nominating yourself or someone else for the position, please contact our Nominating Committee Chair, Dr. James Murray (California State University, East Bay, james.murray@csueastbay.edu).

Message from the Program Officer, Jeff Riffell, dpo.dnnsb@sicb.org

Greetings! The SICB Program Committee met over the weekend of October 5th and prepared the schedule for the Austin meeting. I’m pleased to announce that there was an increase in the number of submitted abstracts from last year (1,894 in total), and there will be a total of 140 sessions (31 of the sessions are DNNSB-related) with 11 symposia.

Our Members Meeting is scheduled for Sunday, January 5th, from 5:30 to 6:15 pm. Please plan on attending! Our Social will be held on Monday, January 6th at 8 pm, after the Bern lecture. Similar to past socials, we’re co-sponsoring the event with the Divisions of Animal Behavior and Comparative Endocrinology. The social will be at the Marriott Hotel, in the area next to the room for the Bern lecture. This area is a great location, with plenty of couches and armchairs for lounging.

Importantly, for Austin 2020 there will be a mother’s room with comfy chairs, and another room nearby with free child daycare. See Lisa’s piece below for more information.

Best Student Presentations: We will have the Best Student Presentation (BSP) session on Sunday, January 5th at 8:00 am. This session will feature the top eight BSP presentations. This year we had 29 total entrants. As in previous years, we will need volunteers to judge these presentations and posters, so please be prepared to help judge these great presentations.

Next Year’s and Future Symposia: We will be co-sponsoring many of the symposia for the Washington DC 2021 Meeting (more details to come). I wanted to thank all of you who submitted proposals! We evaluated 24 proposals (!!), and I’m pleased to say that next year, we will have an exciting series of sessions and symposia related to DNNSB. I want to remind everyone to bring their symposium ideas to Austin and discuss them with Michael, Lisa and me. In addition, we’ll be contacting many of you to encourage symposium proposals for the 2022 meeting.

**Left: Organizing the program schedule for the Austin meeting. Center: Division Program Officers take a look at the meeting rooms. Right: Lounge areas near the meeting rooms.**

Message from the Secretary, Lisa Mangiamele, secretary.dnnsb@sicb.org

Register Now for SICB: Don’t forget to register soon for the upcoming year’s meeting (Jan 3–7, 2020) in Austin, TX. Online registration is open now. The deadline to register if you are planning to present a talk or poster is November 6, 2019, and discounted meeting registration rates apply through December 4th.

Members Meeting Minutes from SICB 2019: Our division’s members meeting minutes are posted on the SICB website shortly after the annual meeting each year. If you missed them, you can find them here.

Information for Parents and Breastfeeding Mothers: For those of you traveling to the SICB annual meeting in Austin with children, there will again be free childcare this year. Advance registration by Dec 4th is required for your child to participate. To register please email PreferredSitter@gmail.com. SICB has also committed to providing a lactation room for breastfeeding mothers. When I receive more information about its location and amenities, I will post it to our @SICB_DNNSB Twitter account.

Keep up with SICB on Social Media During the 2020 Meeting: If you have a Twitter account, follow @SICBTweets, or our Division @SICB_DNNSB. You can use the meeting hashtag #SICB2020 to publicize your own presentation or comment on someone else’s. Be a part of the growing community of scientists who are reaching out and connecting with each other and with the public through social media.

Annual Meeting Code of Conduct: The SICB leadership is committed to ensuring that the annual meeting is an environment where all members have equal opportunity to participate and everyone feels respected and safe. In advance of the meeting, members should read the full statement here, and be advised of the no-tolerance policy for harassment.

Message from the Student/Postdoctoral Affairs Committee Representative, Maryam Kamran, Kamran.mary@gmail.com

Hi everyone, I want to remind you of the opportunities for student travel fellowships, grants and awards. If you missed the deadline for this year, be sure to apply next year!

More information on these awards is available online at: http://www.sicb.org/students/awards.php3#support

I also want to highlight that the SPDAC has a Twitter account that may be of interest to student/postdoc members: SICB Student-Postdoc @SICB_SPDAC. This Twitter account will be updated regularly during the SICB meeting with information and events that are relevant to students and postdocs. Also see the Student Workshops and Student Events pages on the SICB 2020 meeting website.

I look forward to seeing you all in Austin and would love to hear from you about what you would like to see more of and what your needs are so we can provide additional support, whether that’s developing a mentorship program or providing opportunities for networking or highlighting your accomplishments. Please feel free to reach out to me on twitter @merreyum or email me at Kamran.mary@gmail.com.