2004 Molecular & Cellular Neurobiology Gordon Conference

描述(申请人提供)：分子和细胞神经生物学的戈登研究会议(GRC)，虽然只举行了三次，但已经成为该领域的关键会议。会议的两个主要特点是它涵盖了神经生物学的广度，以及它促进的国际互动(特别是对美国和亚洲的科学家)。这次会议的目的是将致力于研究一系列神经生物学问题的分子和细胞机制的各种小组聚集在一起，从神经发育、神经元通讯、感觉系统、神经可塑性和行为，到神经系统疾病。同时，主席和副主席将努力确保这些不同的专题相互之间形成良好的联系，每个专题都有足够的深度。因此，对于在神经生物学不同领域工作的科学家来说，这次会议将是一个难得的机会，可以相互学习最新进展，并架起基础和临床神经科学研究的桥梁。它还为希望或只是进入该领域的研究生和博士后提供了概述。在过去的三次会议上，与会者(演讲者和学生/博士后)的反馈是压倒性的积极的。会议将在香港科技大学举行，香港科技大学已被GRC秘书处选定为戈登在亚洲的永久运营地点。与GRC的传统一样，这次会议规模很小(约150人参加)，并将集中讨论前沿的、未发表的研究。每个发言者的主题将有40分钟，其中三分之一将用于讨论。下午的大部分时间通常都开放给更多的讨论和海报部分，我们预计大多数参与者都会出席。因此，这次会议将是对青年科学家进行教育的绝佳机会。美国国立卫生研究院要求提供财政支持，以支付美国演讲者旅行费用的一小部分。其中大部分用于支付来自美国的学生和博士后的会议费和/或旅费，特别是少数族裔和女性与会者，以增加他们的人数。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, although held only three times, has already emerged as a key meeting in the field. Two of the main features of the meetings are the breadth it covers in neurobiology and the international interactions it promotes (especially for American and Asian scientists). The conference is intended to bring together mixture of groups working on molecular and cellular mechanisms of a wide range of neurobiological problems, from neural development, neuronal communication, sensory systems, neural plasticity and behavior, to diseases of the nervous system. At the same time, the Chair and Vice-Chair will strive to ensure that these diverse topics form nice connections among each other and each topic has sufficient depth. Thus the conference will be an exceptional opportunity for scientists working in different areas of neurobiology to learn the latest advance from each other, and to bridge basic and clinical neuroscience research. It also provides an overview to graduate students and postdocs who wish to or just enter the field. Feedbacks from participants (both speakers and students/postdocs) in the past three conferences were overwhelmingly positive. The meeting will be held at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which has been chosen by the GRC Secretariat as a permanent Gordon operating site in Asia. As with the tradition of GRC, the meeting is small (approximately 150 participants) and will focus on the discussion of cutting-edge, unpublished research. Forty minutes will be allowed for each speaker's topic, a third of which will be devoted for discussion. Much of the afternoons are usually open for more discussions and for poster sections, which we expect the majority of participants will present. Thus the meeting will serve as an excellent opportunity for education of young scientists. Financial support is requested from NIH to cover a small fraction of travel expense for US speakers. Majority of which be used to support conference fees and/or travel of students and postdocs from US, especially minority and women participants to increase their number.