Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology

We hope you will consider us as a valuable resource. The Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology provides access to networks that include members from all levels of experience: undergraduates to professors, academicians and industrial workers. Our meetings and social networks provide opportunities for interactions that include discussions of methods, techniques and results as well as career choices and family life issues. Our society is small and open; membership in our society will facilitate the development of support among students that will become life-long networks of colleagues in the field and can provide mentoring outside of your institution that may present a different perspective. The Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology values the contributions of scientists from both genders, diverse backgrounds, and all racial/ethnic groups. The Society is committed to serving as a catalyst in developing a scientific workforce that not only encompasses, but also embraces, the benefits of diversity among scientists.

The members of the SBN work hard to create a supportive climate in society-sponsored meetings and programs. As a trainee attending our annual meetings, you will notice that all the events occur in one location, without concurrent sessions, affording many opportunities to meet the top researchers in our field. The small, close-knit nature of our society meetings provides an excellent environment for the development of professional networks and potential mentoring relationships.

Call for Nominations: Division 6 Awards
Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology
For more information please click here.
(Submission Deadline: Nov 15, 2011)

DANIEL S. LEHRMAN LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: Nominations are being accepted for the (2012) 7th Daniel S. Lehrman Lifetime Achievement Award in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. Click here for instructions.

Arthur P. Arnold The Daniel S. Lehrman Lifetime Achievement Award in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology for 2011 was presented to Donald W. Pfaff at the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology meeting in Querétaro, Mexico July, 2011. Don obtained his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965 then he moved to Rockefeller University for his postdoctoral research. He moved up the ranks at Rockefeller and advanced to full Professor in 1978. He has received many accolades and importantly in 1994 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Don’s numerous groundbreaking contributions to the field of behavioral neuroendocrinology make him a superb choice for this distinguished honor. Don is a dedicated researcher and his important discoveries have shaped our concepts of sex-steroid effects on the central nervous system and behavior. He has mentored of a large number of graduate students as well as postdoctoral fellows, many of whom have gone on to become leaders in behavioral neuroendocrinology. Another one of Don’s major contributions to the field are the many books, at last count twenty-seven, on topics in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology that he has edited and written. In addition, in the past few years, he served as a Senior Editor of a massive electronic multi-volume set of "books" having to do with Neuroscience called “Neuroscience in the 21st Century”. These books will be made freely available to students at schools in developing countries via the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO). We can hardly think of a greater and further reaching commitment to the dissemination of the Neurosciences and Behavioral Neuroendocrinology.

Daniel Lehrman was one of the most influential scientists in our field. Lehrman was an astute observer of the social interactions between animals in natural environments, and he was largely responsible for making the connection between these behavioral changes and the hypothalamic-pituitary system. Thus, he can be seen as one of the Founders of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. Through his original and creative behavioral experiments, coupled with his ability to incorporate contemporary methodological developments in neuroendocrinology, he made an enormous impact in elucidating the reciprocal relationship between hormones and behavior. Through his scholarship, mentoring and teaching, and most notably his leadership role in the founding of the Institute for Animal Behavior at Rutgers University, he influenced a whole generation of scientists studying animal behavior. Many current members of SBN can trace their academic lineage to Lehrman. Preference will be given to nominees who share many of the best characteristics of Daniel Lehrman.

Past Winners of the Lehrman Lifetime Achievement Award

Jay Rosenblatt
Irv Zucker
Arnie Gerall
Lynn Clemens
Art Arnold
Donald Pfaff

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FRANK A. BEACH AWARD IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY

Frank Beach Award 2011: Staci Bilbo

I am pleased to announce that this year's winner of the Beach Award is Dr. Staci Bilbo, currently an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Duke University. Dr. Bilbo was an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin, completed her PhD work at the Johns Hopkins University in 2003 and was a post doctoral fellow at the University of Colorado in Boulder for four years. Dr. Bilbo is trained in behavioral neuroendocrinology and neuroimmunology, and her work bridges these two fields. She has already been awarded a Young Investigator Award by the PsychoNeuroImmunology Research Society. The Awards Committee was impressed with Dr. Bilbo's historical record but also with the work she has conducted in her own laboratory. We felt that her trajectory for future, important, independent work was extremely high. Please join us at the SFN Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Social on November 14th to congratulate Dr. Bilbo on this important achievement.

Jeff Blaustein, PhD
SBN President

Call for Nominations Frank A. Beach Young Investigator Award in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology

Nominations are now being accepted for the 21st annual Frank A. Beach Award in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. The award will be made to a new investigator, normally within 8 years post-PhD (or MD) who shows exceptional promise for making significant contributions to the field of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. Investigators conducting original, independent research in any area of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology may be nominated. The nominator(s) should submit ONE letter of nomination. This letter can be jointly signed by any number of individuals of any rank, but the Committee will consider only one letter. A current copy of the nominee’s curriculum vitae should be included with the nomination. Re-nomination of individuals nominated previously, who still meet the nomination criteria, but were not chosen, is encouraged.

The Awardee will present a short lecture (15 minutes), receive the award, and an honorarium at the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Social at the Society for Neuroscience (in Washington, DC on November 14, 2011). A paper based on the text of the lecture will also be published in Hormones and Behavior.

This year’s Beach awardee will be selected by the SBN Awards Committee, which members include: Emilie Rissman (Chair), Barbara Woodside, Walter Wilczynski , Barney Schlinger and Leonida Fusani. The deadline for nominations is August 15, 2011. Nominations for this year’s award or questions about the nomination procedures should be sent to:

Dr. Emilie Rissman, University of Virginia, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, PO Box 800733, Charlottesville, VA 22908-0733. Submission of nomination materials as PDF files via email is encouraged: Rissman@virginia.edu

Information from the Trainee Education Night (2010):
The PDF file of the PowerPoint presentation for the trainees "Build your career: Put your best foot forward" can be viewed and downloaded here (6 MB).

We welcome your feedback and future trainee educational events. Please feel free to contact the co-chairs of the Education Committee, Drs. Jennifer Swann or Erin Keen- Rhinehart.

Calls for abstracts and applications for Travel, Poster and Young Investigator Awards will be distributed to the SBN membership prior to each annual meeting. These announcements will also appear on this page as they are made.

Individuals who won an award in the last two years are not eligible to complete for the same type of award, and all award applications will require a CV. General information for each award is given below:

Travel Award applications will require a brief description of the significance of the work to behavioral neuroendocrinology and the applicant's contribution to it. Travel Award applicants must also provide a short justification of the need for financial assistance to attend the meeting, including an explanation of other sources of available funds. Faculty mentors should be asked to prepare a letter of recommendation that will be directly uploaded to the website.

Poster Award applications will require a brief description of the significance of the work to behavioral neuroendocrinology and the applicant's contribution to it. In addition, applicants must list where the work was conducted (whether it was in an undergraduate, graduate or postdoctoral position), and whether that is the same or different than the position they will have when attending the meeting.

Young Investigator applications require a statement of research history and goals (one page). Individuals receiving Young Investigator Awards may not present a poster in addition to their talk. Applicants applying for the Young Investigator Symposium will be asked to submit a second abstract (we anticipate that the abstract for a Young Investigator's talk would be more broad than one for a poster). Young Investigators will be selected by the end of April, and all applicants will be notified of the type of their presentation. Three letters of recommendation should be requested, one of which is from the applicant's current faculty mentor. These letters will be directly uploaded to the website.

A new award has been created by the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology to recognize an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology through advocacy of the field on the interface between research and the public. Nominated individuals may serve in a variety of capacities including, but not limited to, employees of government or non-profit agencies, individuals that directly or indirectly educate the public on scientific matters, writers/journalists, etc. Nominations for this award can be sent at any time and will be considered individually by the SBN Executive Committee. The award will not necessarily be given every year, but only as warranted. To nominate an individual, please send a copy of the candidate's CV and a letter describing how the individual's career exemplifies scientific advocacy. Nominations can be made at anytime. Please send nominations to the current President of SBN.