2025 Travel Awards Announced

Neuroscience Graduate Student Travel Awards

We are proud to announce the recipients of the Neuroscience Graduate Student Travel Awards, which provide support for second-year graduate students to attend and present their research at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) Annual Meeting in November 2025.

Ben Buckley | Pharmacology

Mentors: Mark Beenhakker
Poster Title: Spatiotemporal mechanisms governing oscillation generation and interaction during absence seizures

Crystal Dezha-Bolteada | Neuroscience

Mentors: Ian Wenker
Poster Title: Inferior Colliculus and Periaqueductal Grey Hyperexcitability as Mechanisms of Seizure-Induced Respiratory Arrest

Mary MacMillan | Neuroscience

Mentors: John Campbell, Edward Nieh
Poster Title: Molecular and functional taxonomy of cardiovagal neurons in the mouse medulla

Yixin Ding | Educational Leadership, Foundations and Policy

Mentors: Tanya M. Evans
Poster Title: Divergent Patterns of Interpersonal Neural Synchrony in Autistic and Typically Developing Child-Parent Dyads Engaged in Musical Interaction

Elyssa Pereyra | Pharmacology

Mentors: Mark Beenhakker
Poster Title: Spatial metabolic profile of brain sections from mouse models of absence epilepsy

Allison Tucker | Neuroscience

Mentors: Lulu Jiang
Poster Title: The Role of m6A-RNA Methylation in Alzheimer’s Disease Related Neuroinflammation

John McDaniel | Psychology

Mentors: Jianhua Cang
Poster Title: Transformation of monocular receptive field properties to binocular disparity tuning in tree shrew and mouse V1

Postdoctoral Professional Development Award

Cycle 1 – Awarded Summer 2025

Guillermo Eastman | Biology

Mentors: George Bloom
Conference/Opportunity: Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) Travel Award

Elizabeth Wenzel | Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences

Mentors: Jennifer Payne
Conference/Opportunity: Marcé of North America (MONA) 2025 Travel Award

Ruonan Duan | Neuroscience

Mentors: John Lukens
Conference/Opportunity: ReThink NeuroImmunology (RTN) Symposium Travel Award

Konika Konika | Chemistry

Mentors: Jetze Tepe
Conference/Opportunity: BrightFocus Alzheimer’s Fast Track Workshop Travel Award

Shuo Yuan | Neuroscience

Mentors: Lulu Jiang
Conference/Opportunity: Cell Bio 2025 Travel Award

Soudabeh Naderi | Neurology

Mentors: Jaideep Kapur
Conference/Opportunity: Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2025 Travel Award

Selena Garcia Dubar | Anesthesiology

Mentors: Ian Wenker
Conference/Opportunity: Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2025 Travel Award

Jiale Ren | Biology

Mentors: Jianhua Cang
Conference/Opportunity: Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2025 Travel Award

Cycle 2 – Awarded December 2025

Cheonho Park | Chemistry
Mentors: Jill Venton
Conference/Opportunity: 2026 Monitoring Molecules in Neuroscience (MMiN) Conference

William Mills | Neuroscience
Mentors: Ukpong Eyo
Conference/Opportunity: Neurobiology of Brain Disorders Gordon Research Conference

Jiahui Wu | Biology
Mentors: Xiaorong Liu
Conference/Opportunity: 2026 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Annual Meeting

Claudia Denoue | Anesthesiology
Mentors: Patrick Finan
Conference/Opportunity: Annual Meeting of the United States Association for the Study of Pain (USASP)

Stefen Beeler-Duden | Neurology
Mentors: Kevin Pelphrey
Conference/Opportunity: INSAR 2026 Annual Meeting

Saeedeh Sadeghi | Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences
Mentors: Marieta Pehlivanova
Conference/Opportunity: The Science of Consciousness Conference (TSC 2026)

Daniel Heller | Neuroscience
Mentors: Ashley Brandebura
Conference/Opportunity: Trisomy 21 Research Society (T21RS) International Conference

Sarah Duclos | Biomedical Engineering
Mentors: Natasha Sheybani
Conference/Opportunity: World Molecular Imaging Congress 2026 (WMIC)