For this year’s NeNa, we had quite a
few junior neuroscientists coming in
from Russia, even one from Belarus.
We were happy to have them and
hope they come again. I personally en-
joyed discovering and savoring some
of the most raved about chocolates
from these regions.
by Gizem Altan
ative, and all of us junior neuroscien-
tists definitely appreciated the historic
view of some crucial scientific papers.
On the second day, one of Tuebingen’s
alumni, Hamed Bahmani, stopped
back in at NeNa to lead a discussion on
entrepreneurialism and developments
in digital health and neurotechnology.
The discussion was a nice break away
from the constant stream of academ-
ia, shifting the focus to industry and
company employment after the Ph.D.
NeNa also offered workshops on
Adobe Illustrator and Giving Presen-
tations. The Illustrator workshop was
led by two of the NeNa organizers,
Gizem Altan and Florian Sandhäger.
Polina Krivykh, a NeNa participant
from Moscow State University, led the
presentation workshop. An interesting
suggestion made during Polina’s talk
was to enter any room as if you are
wearing a wet coat and when speak-
ing in front of a large group, leave on
that wet coat. If you cannot imagine
the effect already, think about your
posture and confidence.
On the last morning, we took advan-
tage of the beautiful fall weather and
combined the two final workshops into
one event. It started out with a mean-
dering hike led by our friend Mike Pao-
lillo, and eventually this path brought
us to a prism adaptation experiment.
This activity, organized by Gizem Altan
and Katrina Quinn, proved to be quite
interesting. We worked on our under-
hand shots while wearing the most
fashionable of goggles. It was great
that we were able to model the stylish
eyewear and experience the prism vi-
sion effect first-hand.
As NeNa turned 18 this year, we cele-
brated with good spirits and embraced
a new coming of age. At the end of
the conference, participants had the
chance to vote for the best poster and
talk. This year there was a tie for best
talk. Florian Sandhäger for his talk on
LFP, EEG and MEG and John Dorsch for
his talk on the Ganzfeld Effect. Gizem
Altan received the poster award for
her work on real and implied motion.
Overall, NeNa is no stranger to change
and neither am I. After helping to or-
ganize NeNa for 4 years in a row, I can
already tell she will have a bright fu-
ture. Certainly, I look forward to what
next year’s organizing committee has
in store for us all!
by Ian Chong
Renée Hartig is currently
a PhD candidate in the
Functional and Comparative
Neuroscience laboratory with
Dr. Henry Evrard at the MPI.
by Lukas Ziegler
November 2017 | NEUROMAG |
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