Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology

We hope you will consider us as a valuable resource. The Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology provides access to networks that include members from all levels of experience: undergraduates to professors, academicians and industrial workers. Our meetings and social networks provide opportunities for interactions that include discussions of methods, techniques and results as well as career choices and family life issues. Our society is small and open; membership in our society will facilitate the development of support among students that will become life-long networks of colleagues in the field and can provide mentoring outside of your institution that may present a different perspective. The Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology values the contributions of scientists from both genders, diverse backgrounds, and all racial/ethnic groups. The Society is committed to serving as a catalyst in developing a scientific workforce that not only encompasses, but also embraces, the benefits of diversity among scientists.

The members of the SBN work hard to create a supportive climate in society-sponsored meetings and programs. As a trainee attending our annual meetings, you will notice that all the events occur in one location, without concurrent sessions, affording many opportunities to meet the top researchers in our field. The small, close-knit nature of our society meetings provides an excellent environment for the development of professional networks and potential mentoring relationships.

DANIEL S. LEHRMAN LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: Nominations are being accepted for the (2013) 7th Daniel S. Lehrman Lifetime Achievement Award in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. Click here for instructions.

We are pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2013 Lehrman Award is Professor Alison Fleming, Canadian Research Chair in Behavioral Neurobiology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Dr. Fleming was a graduate student at the Institute of Animal Behavior where she worked with the first Lehrman Award recipient, Dr. Jay Rosenblatt. She conducted her post-doctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley with Dr. Irving Zucker. Her scholarship and productivity throughout her amazing career have been first rate. Dr. Fleming has focused on the control of maternal behavior, at first in rats and hamsters. More than 30 years ago (before the word "translational" was created), Dr. Fleming added a new dimension to her research, studying parenting in humans. Her studies have had a huge impact on the development and focus of this field as studies of control of this essential behavior has shifted from hormones, to sensory systems, to experience.

The criteria for the Lehrman award are two-fold. Mentoring is as important as research achievements. Dr. Fleming has a spectacular record in this domain, as well. Sixteen nominators from all stages in their careers wrote to support this nomination, and while many of these people had trained directly with her, an enormous number were not trainees, but felt that they were "adopted" offspring. The amount of time, energy and care that Dr. Fleming has put into her colleagues at all stages was obvious from these notes. Our heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Fleming.

Jeff Blaustein, PhD and the SBN Awards Committee

Daniel Lehrman was one of the most influential scientists in our field. Lehrman was an astute observer of the social interactions between animals in natural environments, and he was largely responsible for making the connection between these behavioral changes and the hypothalamic-pituitary system. Thus, he can be seen as one of the Founders of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. Through his original and creative behavioral experiments, coupled with his ability to incorporate contemporary methodological developments in neuroendocrinology, he made an enormous impact in elucidating the reciprocal relationship between hormones and behavior. Through his scholarship, mentoring and teaching, and most notably his leadership role in the founding of the Institute for Animal Behavior at Rutgers University, he influenced a whole generation of scientists studying animal behavior. Many current members of SBN can trace their academic lineage to Lehrman. Preference will be given to nominees who share many of the best characteristics of Daniel Lehrman.

Past Winners of the Lehrman Lifetime Achievement Award

Jay Rosenblatt
Irv Zucker
Arnie Gerall
Lynn Clemens
Art Arnold
Donald Pfaff
David Crews
Alison Fleming

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FRANK A. BEACH AWARD IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY

2012 Frank A. Beach Award: Luke Remage-Healey

SBN is proud to announce that the recipient of the 2012 Frank A. Beach Award is Dr. Luke Remage-Healey, assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The award is made to a new investigator, normally within eight years post-PhD (or MD) who shows exceptional promise for making significant contributions to the field of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. Dr. Remage-Healey will be honored at the Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Social at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans, and he will present his lecture at SBN's annual meeting in Atlanta in June 2013.

Dr. Remage-Healey worked in the laboratory of Michael Romero at Tufts as an undergraduate, received his PhD working in the lab of Andy Bass at Cornell, and then did a postdoc with Barney Schlinger at UCLA. Dr. Remage-Healey's website describes his work as follows:

"Our lab is focused on the study of behavioral physiology, specifically the non-traditional regulation of brain function and behavior by steroid hormones. Steroids are produced within discrete neural circuits ('neurosteroids') and can therefore influence behavior via local and acute actions within those circuits. We study these phenomena in songbirds using a variety of technical approaches including in vivo microdialysis, electrophysiology, immunocytochemistry, and neuropharmacology. Songbirds offer a unique model system in which brain steroid production is widespread and especially pronounced, and in which the development and expression of a suite of social behaviors is accessible in the laboratory and natural environments."

Congratulations to Dr. Remage-Healey!

Call for Nominations Frank A. Beach Young Investigator Award in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology

Nominations are now being accepted for the 23rd annual Frank A. Beach Award in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. The award will be made to a new investigator, normally within 8 years post-PhD (or MD) who shows exceptional promise for making significant contributions to the field of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. Investigators conducting original, independent research in any area of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology may be nominated. The nominator(s) should submit ONE letter of nomination. This letter can be jointly signed by any number of individuals of any rank, but the Committee will consider only one letter. A current copy of the nominee's curriculum vitae should be included with the nomination. Re-nomination of individuals nominated previously, who still meet the nomination criteria, but were not chosen, is encouraged.

The Awardee will be recognized and receive the award and an honorarium at the Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Social at the Society for Neuroscience (in New Orleans on October 15). The Awardee will also give a short presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology in Atlanta (June 23-26, 2013).

This year's Beach awardee will be selected by the SBN Awards Committee. The deadline for nominations is August 15, 2012. Nominations for this year's award or questions about the nomination procedures should be sent to:

Dr. Emilie Rissman, University of Virginia, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, PO Box 800733, Charlottesville, VA 22908-0733. Submission of nomination materials as PDF files via email is encouraged: Rissman@virginia.edu

Information from the Trainee Education Night (2010):
The PDF file of the PowerPoint presentation for the trainees "Build your career: Put your best foot forward" can be viewed and downloaded here (6 MB).

We welcome your feedback and future trainee educational events. Please feel free to contact the co-chairs of the Professional Development Committee , Drs. Jennifer Swann or Erin Keen- Rhinehart.

Calls for abstracts and applications for Travel, Poster and Young Investigator Awards will be distributed to the SBN membership prior to each annual meeting. These announcements will also appear on this page as they are made.

Individuals who won an award in the last two years are not eligible to complete for the same type of award, and all award applications will require a CV. General information for each award is given below:

Travel Award applications will require a brief description of the significance of the work to behavioral neuroendocrinology and the applicant's contribution to it. Travel Award applicants must also provide a short justification of the need for financial assistance to attend the meeting, including an explanation of other sources of available funds. Faculty mentors should be asked to prepare a letter of recommendation that will be directly uploaded to the website.

Poster Award applications will require a brief description of the significance of the work to behavioral neuroendocrinology and the applicant's contribution to it. In addition, applicants must list where the work was conducted (whether it was in an undergraduate, graduate or postdoctoral position), and whether that is the same or different than the position they will have when attending the meeting.

Young Investigator applications require a statement of research history and goals (one page). Individuals receiving Young Investigator Awards may not present a poster in addition to their talk. Applicants applying for the Young Investigator Symposium will be asked to submit a second abstract (we anticipate that the abstract for a Young Investigator's talk would be more broad than one for a poster). Young Investigators will be selected by the end of April, and all applicants will be notified of the type of their presentation. Three letters of recommendation should be requested, one of which is from the applicant's current faculty mentor. These letters will be directly uploaded to the website.

A new award has been created by the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology to recognize an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology through advocacy of the field on the interface between research and the public. Nominated individuals may serve in a variety of capacities including, but not limited to, employees of government or non-profit agencies, individuals that directly or indirectly educate the public on scientific matters, writers/journalists, etc. Nominations for this award can be sent at any time and will be considered individually by the SBN Executive Committee. The award will not necessarily be given every year, but only as warranted. To nominate an individual, please send a copy of the candidate's CV and a letter describing how the individual's career exemplifies scientific advocacy. Nominations can be made at anytime. Please send nominations to the current President of SBN.

2013 WC Young Recent Graduate Award: Bridget Nugent
We are pleased to announce the first recipient of the SBN's WC Young Recent Graduate Award for the most outstanding graduate dissertation: Dr. Bridget Nugent. Dr. Nugent is currently a post-doctoral fellow at Yale University. She did her graduate work in Dr. Peg McCarthy's laboratory at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and received her PhD in Neuroscience last year. The title of her award-winning thesis work is "Brain feminization requires active repression of masculinization via DNA methylation." Using molecular and behavioral techniques, her thesis research challenges the notion that brain feminization is a passive process by showing that disruption of DNA methylation in the developing female brain produces a masculine behavioral phenotype. Congratulations go to Dr. Nugent for her important work and for being the first recipient of this award which is in memory of the late Dr. WC Young. As a historic note, one of Dr. Young's students, Dr. Harvey Feder, was Dr. McCarthy's dissertation advisor, and thus Dr.Nugent is a direct descendant of William Young!

Purpose of the WC Young Recent Graduate Award in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology
William C. Young, Frank Beach, and Daniel Lehrman produced the foundations of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. SBN honors Beach and Lehrman by awarding special prizes that reflect the contributions of these founders and their importance to the Society. SBN now adds WC Young to those so honored with the creation of the “WC Young Recent Graduate Award” to be awarded to a recent PhD.

The WC Young Recent Graduate Award is grounded in our history as the SBN’s precursor, the West Coast Sex Conference (WCSC), founded by Frank Beach and W.C. Young, created a graduate award honoring WC Young following Young’s death in 1966. The WCSC eventually was replaced by the Conference on Reproductive Behavior (CRB). As the interests of CRB members broadened beyond sexual behavior the SBN was formed in 1996, replacing the CRB in 1997. With the end of the WCSC the WC Young Graduate Award was no longer awarded. SBN, reflecting how strongly it values graduate students in the Society, now restores the WC Young Recent Graduate Award effective with the 2013 annual meeting.

The WC Young Recent Graduate Award will be for the most outstanding graduate dissertation as judged from a three page essay submitted by the candidate in addition to a CV and letters of recommendation. The awardee will receive travel support to the annual meeting as a Young Investigator and a $500 honorarium. In addition the WC Young Recent Graduate awardee will be the lead speaker at the Young Investigator symposium. Graduate students can apply in the year their Ph.D. is awarded or the following year, but they would only qualify to apply one time.

Call for applications would be made to the SBN memberships, and the deadline would be the same as the applications for Young Investigator and Travel Awards to the annual meeting. Applicants for the WC Young Recent Graduate Award would submit the same materials as for the YI with one additional requirement, a maximum three page essay based on the student’s dissertation. Applications for the WC Young Recent Graduate Award that are not selected will be judged along with the Young Investigator applications, as long as the applicant has not already received a YI award for a previous meeting. Per usual any applicants that fail to win a YI award, and are eligible, will also be considered for a travel award.