The Neuroscience Retreat is open to all in the Washington University Neuroscience Community regardless of graduate program, department, or campus.
The Neuroscience Retreat is organized by graduate students in different programs, and is intended to foster scientific and social interaction among students, postdocs, and faculty.
Save the dates!
September 18-19, 2025
Community-wide Neuroscience Retreat
Eric P. Newman Education Center (EPNEC) and Farrell Learning & Teaching Center
Background
The Neuroscience Retreat is open to all engaged in Neuroscience research. It’s a great opportunity to share research findings, socialize, identify labs for rotation and otherwise engage.
Organized by graduate students and coordinated by the Office of Neuroscience Research (ONR), the Retreat program includes short talks, keynote presentations, lightning talks, “Table Topics”, poster sessions and NeurOlympics.
The Neuroscience Retreat is supported by the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience, the McDonnell Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, and the Vagelos Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences.
Thach Award
Grad students and postdocs who submitted an abstract are eligible to compete for a Thach Award. Winners are selected from the short talks and from the posters, and announced after the Retreat.
NeurOlympics
NeurOlympics is a competition of mind, strength, speed, and endurance. NeurOlympics is a neuroscience/lab/WashU themed trivia event that brings together teams from different cohorts, fields, and departments.
For any questions about NeurOlympics, please contact any member of this subcommittee: Lili Barbar, Emma Danhash and Liza Mangutov.
Lightning Talks
Lightning Talks are an opportunity to hear (briefly!) from faculty members seeking students and postdocs, from cores and other shared resources, and from organizers of outreach activities. Lightning Talks are spread throughout the retreat program.
Table Topics
Table Topics take place over lunch at the Retreat and are an opportunity for conversation about science, policy, work-life balance etc. There’s no advance sign-up to join a discussion. Retreat attendees simply get their lunch and, if interested to join a discussion, choose any of the designated Table Topic tables. (There also will be plenty of additional, non-designated tables if Table Topics doesn’t work for you!)
Faculty members and postdocs: Interested to host a discussion? On the registration form, note your interest to participate and, if you have an idea, suggest a topic. The registration form lists topics from previous years if you need some inspiration!
T-shirt design competition
Check back for the call to submit your 2025 t-shirt design!
- The shirts can have both front and back designs.
- Designs should be limited to 2-3 colors and should fit within a square foot.
- The design must include “Neuroscience Retreat” and “2025” on the front or the back.
- Please format your submission as a 300 dpi photoshop file, or as vector art (SVG, Illustrator, Inkskape… whatever)
- Indicate what color the shirt’s fabric should be
Slight modifications may be requested after submission of your design.
Retreat Registration
Check back for registration for the Neuroscience community-wide retreat in summer 2025!
Call for abstracts
Check back for the call for abstracts for the Neuroscience community-wide retreat in summer 2025!
Research short talks and posters
The poster session is open to all to present research. Additionally, students and post docs can request to be considered for a short talk (7 minutes). Short talk presenters will be selected by a review committee considering multiple criteria including scientific merit, approach/model system, campus (Danforth or Medical) and graduate program (with an aim to feature multiple graduate programs). Our aim is that short talks reflect more complete projects.
Lightning Talk and/or poster
Faculty/post docs/students/staff are invited to sign up to pitch their resource. Lightning Talks will be 2 minutes or less. PIs: If you’d like to promote your lab through a poster (and/or lightning talk), please use the Lightning Talks/posters form (and not the Abstract form).
Retreat Archives
To review speakers and programs from previous Neuroscience Retreats, visit the Retreat Archives.
Neuroscience Retreat Committee
The Office of Neuroscience Research is grateful to the students, faculty, and administrators who serve on this committee.
Trainees
Jhoan Aguilar
Lili Barbar
Emma Danhash
Karl Friedrichsen
Kayla Hannon
Martin Jarzyna
Shelby Leverett
Elizaveta Mangutov
Julia Pai
Robert Wong
Lite Yang
Faculty
Deanna Barch
Rob Gereau
Tamara Hershey
David Holtzman
Barani Raman
Linda Richards
Anneliese Schaefer
Jeffrey Zacks
Chuck Zorumski
Administrative
Pamela Camp
Kate Ruzicka
Sally Vogt
Questions or concerns?
Please contact the ONR.
