Early Career Neuroscience Prize

Dr Sousa Nunes giving ECN Prize talk

Each year the UCL Neuroscience Domain presents the Early Career Neuroscience Prize to two UCL neuroscientists. The prize aims to recognise outstanding work published in the past year by early career UCL neuroscientists in any field of neuroscience, and is awarded in two categories; junior scientist and advanced scientist. Winners receive a cash prize and are given the opportunity to present their work at the annual UCL Neuroscience Symposium.

The 2013 Early Career Neuroscience Prize is now open

Deadline : Friday 5 April 2013

This year’s Early Career Neuroscience Prize is now open for entries. The prize aims to recognise outstanding work published in the past year by early career UCL neuroscientists in any field of neuroscience, and is awarded in two categories; junior scientist (PhD students or post-docs with up to 3 years post-doc experience) and advanced scientist (from 4 and up to 10 years post-doc experience).

The competition is open to all UCL PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, research associates and junior Principal Investigators (first position as PI, lecturer, or research fellow and within 10 years of receipt of a PhD or MD) working on any aspect of neuroscience. Nominees are expected to have led a ground-breaking piece of work, which they have published (online or in print) as first author in a peer-reviewed journal between 1 January 2012 and 30 March 2013. The research should have been conducted at UCL. (Papers accepted/ in press before deadline of 30 March will also be eligible for inclusion if accompanied by confirmation of acceptance from the Journal).

Assessment criteria Nominations will be judged by an internal expert panel according to the following criteria:

1. Calibre of publication, originality and potential impact on its field

2. Nominee’s involvement in that paper

Nominations

Nominations will be assessed in two groups. Two prizes will be awarded with one overall winner being selected to present their work at the symposium:

1. PhD student – Junior postdoc (up to 3 years post-PhD)

2. Senior Postdoc (+3 years post-PhD)– Junior PI (<10 years post-PhD experience)

Candidates should self-nominate. Nominations must include the following documentation:

1. A supporting statement from the nominee, providing a brief summary of the research (in language accessible to a broad range of neuroscientists), the significance of the work and potential impact on its field together with a description of the nominee’s involvement (must not exceed one page of A4/500 words). Nominees should also indicate which of the two groups above they fall into.

2. The publication to be considered in pdf format

3. A list of up to 5 of your own relevant publications that support the nomination

4. Confirmation of impending publication by the Journal (only applicable if article accepted but not yet published)

Winners must be available to attend the 2013 UCL Neuroscience Symposium on Friday 21 June and be prepared to give a 15 minute presentation of their work.  Only one application per individual is allowed.

Deadline for submission of nominations is 5pm, Friday 5 April 2013.

Nominations should be emailed to: neuroscience@ucl.ac.uk

2012 Winners

Junior category:
Dr Thomas Akam, UCL Institute of Neurology:  Oscillatory dynamics in the hippocampus support dentate gyrus–CA3 coupling. Nature Neuroscience 15, 763–768 (2012). Thomas Akam, Iris Oren, Laura

Advanced category:
Drs Lorenzo Fabrizi and Rebeccah Slater, Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology: A Shift in Sensory Processing that Enables the Developing Human Brain to Discriminate Touch from Pain. Curr Biol. 2011; 21(18): 1552-8. Fabrizi L*, Slater R* (*equal contribution), Worley A, Meek J, Boyd S, Olhede S, Fitzgerald M

Read more about the 2012 winners

2011 Winners

Junior category:
Dr Rita Sousa-Nunes, National Institute for Medical Research and Cell and Developmental Biology:  Sousa-Nunes R, Yee LL and Gould AP (2010) “Fat cells reactivate quiescent neuroblasts via TOR and glial Insulin relays in Drosophila”, Nature 471(7339):508-512.

Dr Slater recieving ECN Prize from Professor Trevor Smart

Advanced category:
Dr Tiago Branco, Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research: Branco T, Clark BA, Häusser M. Dendritic discrimination of temporal input sequences in cortical neurons, Science 2010 Sep; 24; 329(5999): 1671-5.

Read more about the 2011 winners