More than 300 neuroscientists participated in the NAD Annual Meeting October 28-30 2024. The programme was filled to the brim with keynote lectures, poster sessions, presentations from talented early career researchers and parallel symposia organised by the NAD Research Columns, highlighting the excellence and diversity of Danish neuroscience as well as showcasing cutting-edge international research.
It was truly inspiring to see neuroscientists from different levels and disciplines making connections and exchanging ideas. We cannot wait to do it all again in 2025!
Below, you can meet event participants Sonal Shreya and Sofie Jacobsen below and learn more about their experience at the NAD Annual Meeting.
Sonal Shreya
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aarhus University
Originally from India, Sonal moved to Denmark for a postdoc position in 2021. During the NAD Annual Meeting, Sonal was one of the scientists who were selected for an early career presentation about her research titled “Neuromorphic computational model for energy-efficient spintronics-based Hopfield oscillatory neural network”.
What is your background, and why did you attend the NAD Annual Meeting?
With a background in electrical engineering, Sonal attended the event with the goal of connecting with scientists within the Danish neuroscience community and set up interdisciplinary collaborations:
“The challenge that I faced since I started my position as assistant professor last year was that I found that there is a huge gap in my knowledge in neuroscience which is important for developing brain-inspired computing architectures. In order to bridge that gap, I need to meet some neuroscientists. I found Neuroscience Academy Denmark and I thought that okay – I think this is a place where I can bridge that gap.”
In addition to participating in the NAD Annual Meeting, Sonal is also involved in teaching at a course for the 2024 NAD fellows in December.
What was your main takeaways from the event?
When asked about her main takeaways from attending the NAD Annual Meeting, Sonal highlights the many new connections she has made during the event:
“Within the past two days, I have seen a lot of talks and I connected with many people – even some students — who approached me after my talk. After going back, I will start contacting these people. I think it is very important to have opportunities for national collaboration and networking – I am mostly used to having international networking and collaboration within my own field, spintronics. During the meeting, I also got to know someone working within spintronics, and I had a meeting with him. So that is also thanks to NAD, because I got this opportunity to come to Copenhagen. I will look forward to my continued engagement with NAD.”
Sofie Jacobsen
MSc student in Neuroscience, University of Copenhagen
One of this year’s participants was MSc student in Neuroscience Sofie Jacobsen from the University of Copenhagen. In addition to participating with a research poster, Sofie was also selected to do an early career presentation titled “Follow your heart: Norepinephrine, heart rate and memory consolidation”.
How was your experience of presenting your research to a large audience?
“I think that it is amazing that NAD gives young scientists an opportunity to present their work. It was a really good experience. The audience was great and seemed interested in my research.”
What were you hoping to get out of your attendance in the NAD Annual Meeting?
“One of the things I appreciate about events like this is meeting other people and exploring potential collaborations. I really enjoy listening to so many different talks and encountering new perspectives on neuroscience, and I was especially looking forward to Professor Frances E. Jensen’s talk. She emphasised combining the pre-clinical and the clinical and that a disorder is not just a disorder, it is also connected to so many other things. As someone with a background in cognitive science and translational neuroscience, I think her point about increasing collaboration between different fields and across topics and methodologies is a great message to send.”
What is next for you?
While currently working on finishing her master’s thesis in the Kjærby Lab at the Center for Translational Neuromedicine, Sofie is exploring options for her future career:
“I am definitely exploring PhD opportunities. I am very interested in the intersection of neuroscience, data science and more engineering-focused fields. However, for the next little while, I will continue work in my lab, finishing up work and preparing a publication.”