The annual 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!
2023 Neuroscience Retreat
Thursday, October 12 – Friday, October 13
Location: Washington University in St. Louis
Stay tuned for additional details!
Keynote speakers

Debra Silver, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Molecular Genetics
and Microbiology
Duke University
Background
The Annual Neuroscience Retreat takes place each fall and is open to students (all graduate programs), postdocs and faculty engaged in Neuroscience research.
The Neuroscience Retreat is a great opportunity for all to share research findings, socialize, identify labs for rotation and otherwise engage.
Organized by graduate students and coordinated by the Office of Neuroscience Research, the Retreat program typically includes short talks, keynote talks, “table topics”, a poster session and NeurOlympics.
Administrative assistance is provided by the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience, the McDonnell Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, and the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences.
Call for abstracts
Stay tuned for the 2023 Call for abstracts next summer!
Students and Postdocs: You are invited to submit an abstract and identify if your abstract should be considered for a short talk or a poster, or only a poster. A review committee will select a subset of abstracts for short talks, considering multiple criteria including scientific merit, approach, campus (Danforth or Medical) and graduate program (with an aim to feature multiple graduate programs). Abstracts that reflect more complete projects are more likely to be selected for short talks.
Thach Award
Grad students and postdocs are eligible to compete, and winners are chosen from short talks and poster presentations at the Retreat.
T-Shirt design competition
Stay tuned for the call for designs next summer!
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 “2023” on the front or the back. Please format your submission as a 300 dpi photoshop file, or as vector art (SVG, Illustrator, Inkskape… whatever) and be sure to indicate what color the shirt’s fabric should be.
Retreat Registration
Stay tuned for 2023 retreat registration information next summer!
The Annual Neuroscience Retreat is open to students (all graduate programs), postdocs and faculty engaged in Neuroscience research. The retreat is a great opportunity for all to share research findings, socialize, identify labs for rotation and otherwise engage.
Table Topics
Back by popular demand, Table Topics will happen on Thursday afternoon. Table topics are an opportunity to have a conversation about science, policy, work-life balance. On the registration form, you can suggest a topic, note your interest to participate and, if you’re a faculty member or postdoc, sign up to lead a Table Topic discussion.
NeurOlympics
Introduced to the Retreat in 2016, NeurOlympics is a competition of mind, strength, speed, and endurance. NeurOlympics is a neuroscience/lab/WashU themed trivia event that brings together graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members from different cohorts, fields, and departments.
For any questions about NeurOlympics, please contact any member of this subcommittee: Lili Barbar and Emma Danhash.
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.
Students:
Jhoan Aguilar
Lili Barbar
Saul Bello Rojas
Emma Danhash
Karl Friedrichsen
Kayla Hannon
Martin Jarzyna
Jenna Krizan
Shelby Leverett
Elizaveta Mangutov
Lite Yang
Julia Pai
Zelun Wang
Robert Wong
Faculty:
Deanna Barch
Rob Gereau
Tamara Hershey
David Holtzman
Barani Raman
Linda Richards
Anneliese Schaefer
Jeffrey Zacks
Chuck Zorumski
Administrators:
Carmen Horn
Rashelle Popinski
Kate Ruzicka
Sally Vogt
Questions or concerns?
Please contact the ONR.

