Neuroscience in India
       
A satellite event of the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Oct 17th-21st 2009, Chicago USA.      
       
Organizers:      
       
Shubha Tole, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India
       
Anuradha Lohia, CEO, Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance      
       
Download schedule here      
       
The Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience is the single largest meeting place for scientists working on diverse aspects of neuroscience across the world. We organized a satellite event aimed at raising awareness and enthusiasm for candidates to consider faculty positions or postdoctoral fellowships in Neuroscience in India.
The program showcased Neuroscientists who have successfully set up labs in India over the past decade. Prof. Vijayalakhsmi Ravindranath, who was the Director of the National Brain Research Center for 10 years from 1999 to 2009, and is now heading a new Center for Neuroscience at IISc, presented a broad perspective of Neuroscience research across the country. This was followed by a perspective by Prof. Shubha Tole, who started her lab in 1999, describing the trials and triumphs of setting up the first vertebrate lab at her Institute. Dr. Anuradha Lohia showcased Neuroscientists at Institutes all over India who started their careers funded by the Wellcome Trust and more recently by the India Alliance. This was followed by a panel discussion and question session, presenting an overall picture that the stage is set for a huge influx of neuroscientists who can build upon what has already been started.      
 
We had enthusiastic participation from the community, approximately 150+ attendees including students, postdocs, and faculty members, who stayed for 2:30 hours asking questions till the very end, several of whom emailed to say they were happy to see the first such event at the SFN meeting, and were inspired by what they saw. This is set to become a regular satellite event at future SFN meetings.      
   
Shubha Tole, TIFR Mumbai      
       
       
Some comments from participants:      
       
…this was truly a well-organized, informative event. …. answered all my queries regarding science, recruitment policies, funding sources and life style in general. I sincerely hope we can organize another informal gathering of Indian Neuroscientists in the next Neuroscience meeting....      
       
…I must say that you all did a great job. I am seeing that dreams are coming true - when I started as a grad student in 2001; I saw every little country had their special get togethers in big conferences like SFN but this is the first meeting where I saw bunch of Indian scientists coming together!!...........      
       
…… It was inspiring to hear about all the opportunities for neuroscience in India. I really liked the FAQ you compiled and others also told me that it was very informative.      
       
….. great and extremely informative. To me, the outstanding bit was to know about the funding opportunities and infrastructural. Truly, these are exciting times for neuroscience in India …..      
       
…congratulations for last night's session. From the questions it was clear that you have hit on something and it would be great if this was a regular SfN event. ……