Annual meeting of the Swiss Society for Neuroscience

The central aim of the Swiss Society for Neuroscience (SSN) meeting is to bring scientists from Switzerland at all career levels together to share and discuss their latest research findings, to learn about new technological or key conceptual developments in neuroscience, to network and to explore new collaborations. Next year's meeting is scheduled to take place on Saturday, January 29 & 30 2021 at the University of Fribourg. Despite the great challenges imposed by Covid-19, more than 400 researchers and clinicians from Switzerland are expected to attend this meeting, which is the major Swiss venue for exchange of current scientific information in the area of brain research. The meeting has a wide focus that includes molecular and systems neuroscience, as well as clinical research and neural computation / bioinformatics. The meeting will take place in our modern lecture halls of the University of Fribourg with extra-space between participants and for the first time also with an online viewing possibility to face the current Covid-19 situation.The local organizing committee is pleased to present a very exciting scientific program, including presentations by world-renowned experts and four parallel symposium oral sessions. The keynote lecturer Prof. Gilles Laurent from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Germany, a world-wide leader in Neuroscience who will speak about his institute's efforts to delineate cortical circuit computations in vision and olfaction. There will also be a large poster session in person and online, fostering interaction and exchange of scientific ideas among the participants. A special aspect of this year is a presentation of the new movie documentary by Jean-Stéphane Bron about the brain followed by a discussion with Monsieur Bron, neuroscientists and teachers about education, didactic methods and knowledge acquisition.The meeting is attended by many young scientists including doctoral students and postdocs, and indeed these young members of the SSN are organizing one of the parallel symposia in 2021, as well as a career workshop.We anticipate that the event will have a very positive impact on the ongoing development of neuroscience in Switzerland, including the generation of fresh ideas for new projects and methods developments to study the brain. Capitalising on the public event with Swiss film maker Jean-Stéphane Bron and his latest documentary on the brain, we believe the event will help to strengthen the general public's awareness for the brain and neuroscientific research.