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School of Neuroscience Innovator Seminar Series

Innovator Seminar Series

All seminars take place on Wednesday at 11:00AM.

Please direct any questions you have to Annika Schmierer (schmiera@vt.edu) or Michelle Olsen (molsen1@vt.edu).

*Click the hyperlinked names of the speakers for more details about the seminar as the date aproaches.*

Join the seminar Zoom here.

To see the lists of prior Innovator Seminar speakers, click here.

Fall 2024 Speaker List

Date

Speaker

Position/Affiliation

Aug 28

Pamela Vandevord, PhD

N. Waldo Harrison Professor, Associate Dean of Research and Innovation, Virginia Tech College of Engineering

 

Dr. VandeVord's research and educational platforms focus on the complex mechanisms of injury to the brain, with a thrust to understand the persistent neurobehavioral and neuropathological consequences of this traumatic event.

Sep 11

Alicia Cohen

Director of Diversity Programs, Office for Inclusion and Diversity, Virginia Tech

 

Alicia provides leadership for diversity education for students and facilitates customized workshops on a variety of topics. She also serves on the Sexual Violence Culture and Climate Work Group and co-facilitates the community engagement subcommittee.

Sep 25

Chang Lu, PhD

Fred W. Bull Professor of Chemical Engineering, Graduate Program Director, Virginia Tech

 

Dr. Lu’s research applies microfluidics to study molecular and genome-wide biology. His lab is interested in applying these technologies to study cancer and neuroscience involved in psychiatric disorders.

Oct 9

SFN

No seminar

Oct 23

Maribel Rios,PhD

Professor of Neuroscience, Tufts University

 

Dr. Rios's research focuses on defining BDNF modulated neural circuits and molecular mechanisms that control appetite and affective states.

Nov 6

Sam Golden, PhD

Assistant Professor, University of Washington

 

Dr. Golden’ s research focuses on cellular, circuit, and whole brain mechanisms underlying social motivation, with an emphasis on appetitive aggression and its interaction with neuropsychiatric disorders such as addiction and depression. His lab employs chemogenetics, optogenetics, calcium imaging, whole-mount light-sheet fluorescent microscopy and machine-learning approaches.

Nov 20

Nobuyoshi Suto, PhD

Assistant Professor, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine

 

Dr. Suto is interested in studying the impact of neuronal ensembles on decision making during drug and alcohol dependence.

Dec 4

Joel Meyer , PhD

Director, University Program in Environmental Health

 

Dr. Meyer studies the effects of toxic agents and stressors on human and wildlife health. His lab is particularly interested in understanding the mechanisms by which environmental agents cause DNA damage, the molecular processes that organisms employ to protect prevent and repair DNA damage, and genetic differences that may lead to increased or decreased sensitivity to DNA damage.