CEN faculty and students participate in the First Annual Maine Neuroscience Conference

The Maine chapter of the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) held its first annual meeting at Bates College on Saturday, April 23, 2011. Over 75 Maine neuroscience faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduates participated in the daylong event. 

Drs. Guoping Feng (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Marie Hayes (University of Maine) made keynote presentations on their work on compulsive behaviors and human brain development, respectively. 

University of New England’s Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences was well represented at the meeting. Drs. Ling Cao, Michael Burman and David Mokler all gave oral presentations on their latest research. Undergraduate seniors Holly Beaulac (Cao lab) and Josh Havelin (Bilsky lab) presented posters on their Honor’s thesis research projects. Neal Mecum (Selvage lab), Jordan Faloon (Bilsky lab) and Wendy Weissner (Mokler lab) presented their findings, which also included a poster presentation on a collaborative project between the laboratories of Drs. Cliff Rosen (MMCRI) and Karen Houseknecht (UNE College of Pharmacy). 

The day ended with a business meeting that more formally established the chapter and started planning future meetings and K-12 outreach programs associated with SFN’s Brain Awareness week. For additional information on the Maine SFN chapter please contact Drs. Alan Rosenwasser (Alan_Rosenwasser@umit.maine.edu)or Edward Bilsky (ebilsky@une.edu).

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.