UIC program sends undergrads to neuroscience meeting

Fifty undergraduates in neuroscience will attend the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience next week, courtesy of UIC’s Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience.

The meeting, Oct. 17 to 21 in Chicago, is attended by more than 30,000 participants from 80 countries.

“I’ve never been to a conference this big,” said Alexis Reisch, a senior in neurosciences. Reisch, who plans to attend presentations on anxiety and mood disorders, child abuse and trauma, said the $300 registration would have kept her from going.

She is applying for a Fulbright Scholarship to Sweden next year, where she hopes to study the effect of child abuse on emotional regulation before beginning graduate studies.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to see firsthand the exciting work being undertaken in neuroscience,” said Suzanne Harrison, director of programs and instructional support in the biological sciences.

The Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is a faculty collective from biological sciences, chemistry, psychology and philosophy. The program includes research, teaching and scholarship on nervous systems and behavior, offering both undergraduate and graduate courses and a bachelor’s in neuroscience.

Paul Malchow, associate professor of biological sciences, is director and Mitchell Roitman, associate professor of psychology, is associate director.