ASSOCIATION OF NEUROSCIENCE DEPARTMENTS AND PROGRAMS
FALL MEETING SUMMARY
Wyndham Canal Place Hotel
New Orleans, LA
November 4, 2000

The ANDP held its annual Fall Meeting and Banquet on Saturday, November 4, 2000, at the Wyndham Canal Place Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana. Each year the membership of the ANDP honors an individual whose contribution to education has been exemplary. A highlight of the banquet was the presentation of tenth annual ANDP Education Award to Neal E. Miller, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus at Yale University. He was introduced by Dr. Edward Stricker, the incoming President of ANDP, and Dr. Ted Coons, both former graduate student trainees of Professor Miller, who remarked on his very distinguished and much-honored scientific career. However, it was his outstanding contributions as a mentor of predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees, during his 45 years at Yale and Rockefeller Universities, that were honored with this award. See link for further details.

The ANDP sponsored two other events in New Orleans. On Saturday, November 4th, the ANDP and the Society for Neuroscience co-sponsored a workshop on Professional Skills, organized by Michael Zigmond and Beth Fischer. An enthusiastic audience interacted with the guest speakers in discussing professional development for emerging neuroscientists. Then, breakout groups discussed such issues as advancement in industry and in academia, grant-writing and reviews, and interviewing.

On Monday, November 6th, the third annual ANDP Forum on Graduate Training in Neuroscience was held. Its first component was organized by Alison Hall (Case Western Reserve Univ.), director of the ANDP Training Fellows program. Two of the 1999-2000 ANDP Fellows, Anne Baldwin (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Laura Stone (Oregon Health Sciences University), discussed various issues concerning graduate and postdoctoral training from the trainee's perspective. (See report of their more extended presentation of this material at the Spring 2000 ANDP meeting.) During the remainder of the Forum, Edward Stricker presented and discussed preliminary data from the 2000 ANDP survey of graduate training and careers in neuroscience. He emphasized the increasing numbers of students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate training programs in Neuroscience, the increased diversity in the populations of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and the career opportunities and choices of recent trainees. (See the 2000 ANDP Survey Report for a full report). 

As in previous years, the ANDP and the Society for Neuroscience co-sponsored the Student Hospitality Suite as a retreat from the hubbub of the meeting. Volunteer graduate students from a variety of training programs manned the site.

New officers of the ANDP assumed their duties at this meeting: President Edward Stricker (University of Pittsburgh), President-Elect James King (Ohio State University), Secretary Michael Friedlander (University of Alabama at Birmingham), and Councilor Jack Waymire (University of Texas - Houston Health Science Center). The valuable contributions of outgoing Secretary Katherine Fite (University of Massachusetts - Amherst), Councilor Nicholas Brecha (UCLA), and Past President Robert Fellows (University of Iowa) were acknowledged, as was the remarkable leadership of Barbara Talamo (Tufts University), who now becomes Past President. In addition, the three 2000-01 ANDP Fellows were introduced at the meeting: graduate students Norman Atkins, Jr (University of Illinois), William Hu (Mayo Clinic), and Rachelle Toman (Georgetown University).

Plans were announced for the Spring 2001 meeting of the ANDP (which was held at the Mariott Metro Center in Washington DC, on May 6th and 7th).