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NNS 2023 Symposium Highlights
The National Neurotrauma Society had a very successful annual Symposium from June 25-28, 2023. This year’s theme was “Celebrating Landmarks of Neurotrauma”, as we celebrated 35 years of the Society and 40 years of the annual meeting. We had fantastic scientific sessions, including 3 opening plenary talks, 2 keynote scientific speakers, and numerous concurrent sessions. We also had a very impactful patient perspective keynote talk, as we heard from the parents of a child with severe TBI. There were 868 total registrants and 425 posters, and we raised over $200,000 in sponsorship with 22 exhibitor booths. Most importantly, we continued our strong tradition of outstanding mentoring through numerous TEAM initiatives, along with excellent networking opportunities. We are very appreciative of the hard work of the NNS 2023 Program Committee members, as well as the support from Jennifer and the ICS team, in creating a highly successful Symposium.
- Dr. Courtney Robertson, MD
As the local representative for NNS2023, I would like to thank all those here in Austin, including our students, as well as our other attendees, who helped to make this Symposium a success. In the spirit of Willy Nelson, Janis Joplin and Aaron Franklin, I hope our attendees had the opportunity to experience the local music scene and feast on food offered by our celebrity chefs. While I understand the emergence of bats, residing under the Congress Bridge, was not as impressive as I had pitched to our audience, I’ve been told that their numbers are “seasonal”. As climate change leads to warmer weather, they are slowly arriving earlier and sometimes arrive in late February. We welcome you back again, if only to view the bats that (we hope) will provide a much bigger show!
- Dr. Linda Noble-Haeusslein, PhD
Training Education and Mentoring (TEAM) NNS lead several successful initiatives at the 2023 annual symposium in Austin, TX. The TEAM workshop, “Strategies to Enhance Diversity: Successes, Challenges, and Next Steps,” hosted a panel who discussed their currently funded R25 and T32 programs focused on graduate student training with dynamic conversations with the attendees about their various recruitment, training, and career preparation strategies. TEAM also organized the annual Networking event on Monday evening, which was held at “Electric Shuffle” and featured networking bingo, food, and shuffleboard fun. TEAM has initiated 2 new programs over the last few years. At an event on Sunday, TEAM welcomed our 3rd cohort of 70 mentor-mentee pairs for an in-person mentoring session that kicks off a year-long mentoring relationship between NNS members at various career levels. If you missed participating in this year’s cohort, keep an eye out in April to participate in the 2024-2025 cohort!
- Dr. Audrey Lafrenaye, PhD
The 2023 Local Scholars Program was a huge success! In collaboration with the University of Texas Austin, Texas A&M University, and the Anne Richards School, we invited 30 students to participate in our 2023 Annual Symposium and were fortunate enough to have 26 amazing attendees. The goal of the program was to provide undergraduate students a unique and exciting perspective about academic research, a national conference, with the goal of encouraging these students to consider graduate school in general and the field of Neurotrauma specifically. Our undergraduate participants heard four excellent talks from our rising stars in the society including Dr. Daryl Fields, Dr. Krupa Savalia, Dr. Jacki Iannucci and Ms. Mia Pacheco. In addition, they participated in a panel discussion about the graduate school process, from application through graduation, from Dr. Jonathan Godbout, Dr. Rachel Rowe, Dr. Jackie Iannucci and Ms. Mia Pacheco. Each of our participants brought their unique perspective, from presenting about their research, serving on graduate admissions committees, experiences as underserved students in graduate school, and their passion for the field of Neurotrauma. Special thanks to Drs. Marlone Henderson and Lee Shapiro for serving as local hosts. If you are interested in participating in the Local Scholars Program for NNS 2024 in San Francisco, please reach out to Drs. Rachel Rowe or Gene Gurkoff.
- Dr. Gene Gurkoff, PhD
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