Amber Smith is president of the Undergraduate Neuroscience Society. She is also an undergraduate researcher in an MCB faculty member’s neuroscience lab. This past October, the Undergraduate Neuroscience Society traveled to Madison, Wisconsin for the Neuroscience Annual Conference. Read on to learn more about Amber's experience presenting and participating.
The world of neuroscience is incredibly vast, from the circuit level structures in the brain to behaviors of everyday life. I joined the Undergraduate Neuroscience Society (UNS), a registered student organization at Illinois, as a freshman with the goals of learning more about the possible avenues of research in the field and making friends in the neuroscience community here. UNS was founded in order to bring the neuroscience community of Illinois together before the neuroscience major was introduced. Today, UNS is focused on expanding opportunities for students interested in neuroscience regardless of major.
Each year, UNS travels to a regional Midwest neuroscience conference. These conference trips are an amazing way to explore what current research is being done in our own backyard. As President of UNS, I decided to focus on the Upper Midwest Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience (UMC SfN) Annual Conference this year. UNS also coordinated the trip with Brain Matters, the only student-run neuroscience journal on campus. As a chapter of the international organization Society for Neuroscience, this conference offers a wide array of research topics and opportunities to network. Attendees come to UMC SfN for a variety of reasons. This year I attended to present a poster on the neuropathology of epilepsy in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s Disease. Other attendees simply come to listen to the research being presented or to speak with the graduate school admissions panel.
In lecture, professors often tie in real world scenarios and research. At conferences like UMC SfN you are able to see this research in action. After hearing about the amazing research occurring all around us, we are able to come back to campus with renewed passion. The conference gives a clear example of the culmination of classroom knowledge put to work in the field. There is nothing like recognizing topics you had learned about put into practice to find answers to some of the largest issues pertaining to health and behavior.
Attending UMC SfN is vital to my own aspirations of earning my MD/PhD and working on translational research in the field of neuroscience. The research aspect of the dual degree program is crucial. Presenting my poster at UMC SfN helps to build not only my communication skills, but also allows me to network with others interested in neuroscience. Everyone at the conference is excited to talk about their research and answer any questions you may have. UMC SfN greatly helped to solidify my interests in a dual degree program rather than remaining strictly pre-med. I, along with every attendee from Illinois, would like to express our gratitude to the Psychology and MCB Departments, as this conference could not happen without their gracious support.