Trinity neuroscientist becomes Ireland’s first FENS Kavli Scholar

Posted on: 19 July 2018

Assistant Professor in Trinity’s School of Biochemistry and Immunology, and the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Tomás Ryan, has been selected as Ireland’s first FENS Kavli Scholar.

He joins a network of 30 outstanding early- to mid-career European neuroscientists with the aim of improving neuroscience through scientific exchange, providing opportunities for young scientists, and facilitating dialogue between scientists, policy-makers, and society.

The network was established in 2014 through a collaboration between the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and the Kavli Foundation. Professor Ryan’s admission was recently confirmed by FENS President, Professor Barry Everitt (University of Cambridge), at the opening ceremony of the FENS Forum of Neuroscience in Berlin.

Scholars participate in several meetings per year that allow for lively discussion of a range of topics across neuroscience as well as challenges and opportunities for European neuroscientists. They then put their ideas into action, for example through opinion articles and white-paper recommendations to European stakeholders on funding schemes and other key issues, establishing childcare grants and mentoring & PhD thesis prizes that are awarded during the FENS Forum, and outreach activities with the general public about brain research.

Professor Ryan said: “I am thrilled to join such an exciting and diverse network of dynamic, young European neuroscientists. Trinity College Dublin is fundamentally a European university, and I look forward to working to represent Ireland and Trinity through neuroscience activities in Europe.”

“The FENS-Kavli network exists primarily to support basic neuroscience research and cross-disciplinary collaborations, but it also has an active role in outreach and public policy. Because of the current tumultuous political climate it has never been more important for scientists to actively engage with the public and with policy makers. The FENS-Kavli scholars have been active in doing so since the network’s inception in 2014, and these efforts will continue at national and European levels over the coming years.”

You can watch Professor Ryan deliver a TEDMED talk in the video below.

To read more about the FENS-Kavli network, see: http://fenskavlinetwork.org/