The Neuroscience and Behavior Program at UMass Amherst is an interdepartmental graduate degree-granting academic unit that brings together faculty members from various departments to provide cutting-edge research training.
"Changing Neuroestrogens Within the Auditory Forebrain Rapidly Transform Stimulus Selectivity in a Downstream Sensorimotor Nucleus" by Luke Remage-Healey and Narendra R. Joshi, an Amherst College undergraduate, was accepted at the Journal of Neuroscience. This is the first (of many to come) totally independent journal article from the Remage-Healey lab.
Jeff Blaustein, Director of the NSB Program presented a Distinguished University Faculty Lecture, entitled "Stress, Puberty, and Mental Health: Remodeling of the Brain’s Response to Hormones," on April 7, 2012. He received the Chancellor's Medal from Chancellor Robert Holub.
Lisa Scott, a faculty member in the NSB Program received a prestigious Early CAREER Development Award from the National Science Foundation.
Sandra Petersen, a faculty member in the NSB Program, received the College Distinguished Outreach Research Award.
During Brain Awareness Week (week of March 12), a large contingent of graduate students from the Neuroscience and Behavior Program led by Emily Manoogian, as well as undergraduates from NSB labs went into the local schools (Greenfield High School, Greenfield Middle School) to teach students how the brain works and how neurons communicate. Reports from the teachers at the Greenfield Middle School indicate that the activities were a great success with the students buzzing about them all day. Thanks to the students who were involved in this: Emily Manoogian, Jesse McClure, Lauri Kurdziel, Bryan Olson, Akshata Sonni, Mary Catanese, Amy Ryan, and Amanda Hamel, and undergraduates Alina Bahlavouni, Ryan Bottary, Alina Gusev, Marysa Mezzetti and Lauren Szymula.
I am happy to announce the establishment of the annual Neuroscience and Behavior Program Katherine V. Fite Distinguished Alumn Speaker to honor Kay’s tireless leadership in creation of our Neuroscience and Behavior Program. Although there were a number of other individuals involved in its inception, it is fair to say that Kay was the pivotal person, who brought the Program to fruition. Kay is now retired, but she has always been an indefatigable champion of interdepartmental graduate programs at UMass. With this speaker, we want to honor Kay and showcase some of our alumns. Although starting in 2013, we hope to hold the banquet along with the annual recruiting event, in this transitional year, the banquet will be held on Wednesday, April 18, 2012.
I am also pleased to announce that our first speaker will be Kay’s final doctoral student, Skirmantas Janusonis, Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Jacquie Kurland, a faculty member in the NSB Program recently received a $1.75 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study intensive treatment outcomes in people with chronic aphasia.
Lauri Kurdziel was announced as this year's winner of the NSB Vincent Dethier Award. Congratulations Lauri!
Eliza L. Nelson, an alumn of the NSB Program received the Hennessey-Smotherman Best Student Paper Award at the 44th annual meeting of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology in Washington, D.C. in November 2011. Publication: Nelson, E.L., Emery, M.S., Babcock, S.M., Novak, M.F., Suomi, S.J., & Novak, M.A. (2011). Head orientation and handedness trajectory in rhesus macaques (/Macaca mulatta/). /Developmental Psychobiology. 53: 246-255. The Hennessy-Smotherman Best Student Paper Award is made for the best paper by a student published in Developmental Psychobiology over a one year period. The goals of the award are: (1) to promote the highest quality of student research in the field of developmental psychobiology, and (2) to encourage students in the field to submit their best work to Developmental Psychobiology.
Emilie Manoogian and Akshata Sonni were inducted into the UMass chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.
Amarylis Velez-Perez was recently awarded a three year Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation.
Lauri Kurdziel and Akshata Sonni, graduate students in the Neuroscience and Behavior Program working in the Rebecca Spencer laboratory were each awarded Trainee Awards from the Sleep Research Society. They will receive funds towards the conference travel and registration, and also were accepted to participate in the Trainee Symposia. Akshata also received a Fellowship for the Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience – a 2-week short course in Santa Barbara this summer.
Thalia Taylor, a third-year PhD student in the NSB program, won the Honda Outstanding Student Paper Award at the International Conference on Driving Assessment in Tahoe, California in June of 2011.
Lauri Kurdziel and Hanna King, graduate students in the NSB Program won the first Media Contest from the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology for their K-12 movie, "The influence of hormones across the life-span." The award was presented and the movie was shown at the annual meeting of the Society in Queretaro, Mexico in June, 2011.
Rosie Combs-Bachmann, a doctoral student in the NSB Program, was co-winner of second place in the 2011 Spring Innovation Challenge, held on April 28, 2011 by the UMass Isenberg Program for the Integration of Management, Engineering and Science.
Wanette Vargas, a second year graduate student in the Neuroscience and Behavior Program, was awarded a travel scholarship from the Society for Advancing Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Travel Scholarship to attend the 2010 SACNAS National Conference held in Anaheim, California on October 2010. She presented the poster emtitled: "Effect of binge drinking during adolescence on the anterior corpus callosum."
The American Society of Primatologists (ASP) presented Dr. Melinda Novak with the Distinguished Primatologist Award at their Annual Meeting, September 16-19, 2011 in Austin Texas. In the 34 years of their existence, this is only the 16th time the ASP has chosen to bestow this award. The Distinguished Primatologist Award honors a primatologist who has had an outstanding career and made significant contributions to the field. Dr. Novak is one of the world's leading experts on the psychological well-being of non-human primates, and as a recipient of this award, she will be invited to deliver the Distinguished Primatologist Address at the 2012 meeting of the Society.
Nafissa Ismail, postdoc and Associate Member of the NSB Program won a Young Investigator Travel Award, and Jeffrey Blaustein, Director of the NSB Program gave the keynote address at the US-Latin American Neuroendocrine Workshop in Vina del Mar, Chile in August, 2012
Neuroscience is arguably the most challenging and exciting of all scientific frontiers. All voluntary and involuntary actions, perceptions, feelings, and thoughts are controlled by the brain and nervous system, yet the most fundamental questions about how these events are accomplished remain the most complex puzzle imaginable for us to solve. Read more.
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