Nipissing University is the place to be this week for neuroscience fans, as a three-day conference celebrating 40 Years of neuroscience at Nipissing University begins today. The conference features 25 individual presentations, with 15 coming from Nipissing graduates who worked in the university’s Neuroscience laboratory as students. A total of eight current Nipissing faculty members are also presenting papers. All talks scheduled on campus will take place in the Vic Fedeli Business Centre (room F210).
Dr. Jeff Kleim, who graduated Nipissing in 1992 and is currently an associate professor at Arizona State University, will deliver the Keynote lecture on Saturday morning at 9:00am. Dr. Kleim’s keynote lecture is titled, Neural Plasticity and Stroke: Encouraging the Brain to Change through Neurorehabilitation. Dr. Matti Saari, who organized the conference and launched the first neuroscience laboratory at Nipissing in 1977, will deliver a presentation on the history of neuroscience at Nipissing University.
Saari says when he first started doing research here, it was tough. He says it’s a very labour-intensive process and graduate students typically assist to a large extent. Saari says he’s very proud and humbled to have had a hand in building this wonderful program. For Dr. Kleim, the neuroscience lab was his first introduction to research that would shape his life and career.
Kleim says he took a first-year Psychology course with Dr. Matti Saari, and he roped him into his lab. He says he worked in the lab every year. Saari gave him the research bug, he showed him his work and Kleim says he was hooked. Kleim added he’s really looking forward to reconnecting with people, meeting some new faculty and graduates and hearing some amazing presentations this weekend.
The conference is open to the public and free of charge. It kicked off this morning and runs until 3:45pm this evening. Five neuroscience researchers will give short, five-minute presentations about how the world might be changed by their research in the next 25 years.
Here is the lineup of speakers, and the title of their talk:
- Dr. Jeff Kleim: Engineering New Brains
- Dr. Phil Nickerson: The future of stem cell therapy in the eye
- Dr. Andrew Weeks: Nice to meet you, can I see your connectome?
- Dr. Michael Jones: Why industry cares about modeling your brain and how it works
- Dr. Justin Carré: Sex hormones and behaviour: the future
The conference continues on Friday, from 9:00am to 3:15pm and Saturday’s events run from 9:00am until 2:15pm.
