Cognitive Neuroscience of Consciousness Trainee Recruitment Conference

Hi everyone,

In a previous post I discussed the tricky business of finding a suitable lab for grad school in this field. After some discussion with lab members and colleagues we are now organizing the following event:

- What is it about? 

The Cognitive Neuroscience of Consciousness Trainee Recruitment Conference 2020 (link to registration here) will feature 12 PIs in the field. Most of them will have short videos uploaded in the coming few weeks, to showcase some current projects in their labs. There will then be 3 panel sessions where registered attendees can ask questions and discuss with the PIs about the presented projects, working in their labs, career advice, grad school applications, etc.

- When are the meetings? Who are the PIs?

They are tentatively scheduled as follows:

Aug 26 Wed 11am (PST) will feature Rachel Denison (Boston University), Tony Ro (City University of New York), Jason Samaha (UC Santa Cruz), & Emily Ward (U Wisconsin-Madison)

Sep 1 Tues 11am (PST) will feature Eve Isham (U Arizona), Brian Odegaard (U Florida), Giancarlo Vanini (U Michigan), Caroline Robertson (Dartmouth) 

-- Update: Profs Isham & Robertson will not be putting up videos; please check their websites for their research: 

http://cat.lab.arizona.edu/
https://pbs.dartmouth.edu/people/caroline-robertson

Sep 3 Thur 11am (PST) will feature Ruth Rosenholtz (MIT), Megan Peters (UC Irvine), Michael Cohen (Amherst), Phil Corlett (Yale)

-- Update: Prof Cohen won't be putting up a video; please check his research website @ http://www.michaelacohen.net/

We expect each meeting to last for about an hour.

- Where will the meetings take place?

These will be virtual meetings online. We plan to use Zoom.

- Who can attend?

The meetings are primarily for trainees, broadly defined to include prospective grad students, research assistants, and postdocs. But others are welcome too. All you need to do is to register here with a correct email address so as to receive further information for the Zoom meetings.

But please be reminded that the meetings will take a semi-synchronous format, that is we will not show the videos at the meeting. You should watch them prior to the meeting, during which we'll go straight to Q&A.

- Where do I find the videos?

Watch this space. Links to the videos / background materials will be added gradually in the coming weeks, as hyperlinks associated with the names of the PIs listed in the schedule above. For example, you can click on Ruth Rosenholtz's name for her video.

- Do I have to pay?

No, although you have to register to attend the meeting, it is free.

- Who are the organizers?

All the work has been done by Cody Cushing and Taylor Webb from my lab, together with our frequent collaborator Matthias Michel.

- Why are all the labs featured based in the US?

Sorry but this is the purpose and current scope of the meeting. The field faces unique challenges in US, due to various factors including funding structure and popular media misrepresentation. Perhaps in the future others will set up similar meetings for other regions too. For now, please forgive our limited logistical bandwidth.

- I have a question not covered above ....

The ideal place may be to ask me on twitter, so others can see the question and my response to it too.