Seminar for Young Neuroscientist Community Scholars

UCLA SYNCS Goal Statement

We are proud to announce a call for applications for the second annual UCLA SYNCS (Seminars by Young Neuroscience Community Scholars) Seminar Series!

The goal of SYNCS is to showcase the work of extramural postdoctoral fellows to the UCLA Neuroscience community at a full-length seminar series. Speakers will receive valuable feedback and exposure as they head toward the job market while the UCLA community learns about the cutting-edge work performed by a talented and diverse group of rising stars. The seminar series is coordinated and hosted entirely by UCLA postdocs, fostering cross-institution networks for upcoming scientific leaders.

The UCLA Neuroscience community values scientific citizenship alongside rigorous research. As such, we aim to highlight not only research contributions, but also efforts aimed at bettering the collective scientific community. We seek to recognize contributions to the open-source community (including tool and software development) as well as contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion (including representation, mentorship, organizing, and communication). These efforts will be an important part of the selection criteria and we encourage you to dedicate a few minutes of the lecture to these efforts. Applications from historically excluded groups are strongly encouraged.

Applicants will need to submit the following application materials by Friday, Sept 1, 2023 11:59pm PST:
1. Research Abstract (250 words max)
2. Community Contributions (250 words max): Please describe how you have contributed to strengthening the culture of our scientific community. This can include creating and/or developing platforms for open and collaborative science, development of open-source tools, contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion, etc.
3. Scientific Vision (250 words max): Please describe your future research goals.
4. CV (5 pages max)

Applications will be fully blinded during initial review. A small group of finalists will be chosen based on their research abstract, scientific vision, and community contributions. To facilitate blind review, please do not include explicitly identifying information (e.g. your name, institutional or lab affiliation) in any application materials except for the CV. Applications that fail to follow these submission guidelines will be automatically disqualified. After finalist selection, the remaining applications will be unblinded with consideration given to CVs to diversify demographic and scientific representation across speakers. Reasonable costs for travel, meals, and accommodations, as well as a small honorarium, will be covered by the UCLA Brain Research Institute.

SYNCS is organized and reviewed entirely by UCLA postdocs and has no affiliation with any particular department or faculty hiring initiatives at UCLA. SYNCS is funded by the UCLA Brain Research Institute. Please direct any questions regarding the application process or seminar series itself to uclasyncs@gmail.com.