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School of Neuroscience Innovators 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.

Spring 2024 Speaker List

Feb 14

Derek Narendra MD/PhD

Lasker Clinical Research Scholar and Investigator, Inherited Movement Disorders Unit, Neurogenetics 

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Feb 28

Michael Reiser, PhD

Senior Group Leader

Janelia Research Center

Dr. Reiser’s research explores visual circuits and  sensorimotor control in simple model organisms.

Mar 13

Jim Otis, PhD

Assistant Professor, Medical University of South Carolina

Department of Neuroscience

The Otis Lab is interested in the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie reward-seeking behaviors. This includes behaviors that are adaptive such as foraging, and those that are maladaptive such as drug seeking.

Mar 27

 

Sam McKenzie, PhD

Associate Professor, University of New Mexico

Department of Neurosciences

The McKenzie lab studies how memories are made, how patterns of neural activity form and propagate, and how to control the spread of seizures.

Apr 10

Wei Zheng, PhD

Professor, School of Health Sciences, Fellow, U.S. Academy of Toxicological Sciences

Purdue University

Dr. Zheng’s research focuses on contributions of the brain barrier systems, especially the blood-CSF barrier in the choroid plexus, in metal-induced neurodegenerative disorders. 

Apr 24

Greg Carr, PhD

Lead Investigator in the Drug Discovery Division of the Lieber Institute

Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine 

Novel therapeutics for psychiatric disease. 

May 8

Jill Turner, PhD

University of Kentucky Lexington College of Pharmacy

Dr. Turner’s translational research program focuses on substance use disorders, including,  working to discover the cellular, molecular, neural, and behavioral basis of early abstinence effects that contribute to relapse, and 2) investigate the relationship of abstinence effects to relapse in clinical studies.