**This workshop has ended. View the recording here.**

Town Hall

APRIL 28, 2021

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) BRAIN Initiative and the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science are co-hosting a town hall meeting on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 from 12:00 – 3:00 pm ET.

The meeting will mark the conclusion of the NIH-DOE Brain Connectivity Workshop Series and serve as a venue for releasing a white paper covering the state of the art in brain connectomics, as well as the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Researchers from all disciplines with expertise in a topic relevant to mapping brain microconnectivity are invited to attend. Other key stakeholders are also encouraged to attend, including researchers in academia and industry, clinicians, representatives from scientific societies and advocacy organizations, and interested members of the public.

This virtual town hall will be livestreamed for attendees using NIH VideoCast. For information regarding access to this event, see the Town Hall Registration page. Audience members are encouraged to use the “Send Live Feedback” button on the NIH VideoCast to submit questions and comments during the event.

Agenda: [Click here to download PDF version]

12:00 pm ET

Opening Remarks
Ruben Alvarez
Deputy Director, Office of Technology Development and Coordination, NIMH

12:05 pm ET

Keynote Address
Caroline Montojo
President, The Dana Foundation

12:15 pm ET

Panel 1: The state of the art and the challenges and opportunities ahead

Moderators:

Kristen Harris
Workshop Series Co-Chair; Professor of Neuroscience, University of Texas – Austin

Peter Littlewood
Workshop Series Co-Chair; Professor of Physics, The University of Chicago; Emeritus Director, Argonne National Lab

Panelists:

Larry Abbott
Workshop 1 Co-Lead; William Bloor Professor of Theoretical Neuroscience, Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University

Eve Marder
Workshop 1 Co-Lead; Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of Biology, Brandeis University

Davi Bock
Workshop 2 Co-Lead; Research Associate Professor, University of Vermont College of Medicine

Hongkui Zeng
Workshop 2 Co-Lead; Executive Vice President and Director, Allen Institute for Brain Science

Mark Ellisman
Workshop 3 Co-Lead; Director, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research; Professor, Neurosciences, Bioengineering; Director, Center for Research in Biological Systems

Galya Orr
Workshop 3 Co-Lead; Biomedical Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Nicola Ferrier
Workshop 4 Co-Lead; Senior Computer Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory

Viren Jain
Workshop 4 Co-Lead; Senior Staff Research Scientist, Google

Mala Murthy
Workshop 5 Co-Lead; Professor of Neuroscience, Princeton University

Joshua Vogelstein
Workshop 5 Co-Lead; Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Biostatistics, Applied Mathematics & Statistics, Neuroscience, and Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University

1:20 pm ET

Q&A with Audience

1:40 pm ET

Break

1:50 pm ET

Panel 2: The significance of mapping mammalian brain circuitry at scale

Moderators:

Cori Bargmann
Torsten N. Wiesel Professor of Genetics and Genomics, Neurosciences and Behavior, The Rockefeller University; Head of Science, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Terrence Sejnowski
Professor, Head, Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, Francis Crick Chair, The Salk Institute

Panelists:

Emery Brown
Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and of Computational Neuroscience, Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anaesthesia, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital; Director, Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program, MIT; Associate Director, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, MIT; Investigator, Picower Center for Learning and Memory, MIT

Elizabeth Buffalo
Professor and Chair, Department of Physiology & Biophysics, University of Washington School of Medicine; Interim Associate Director for Research, Washington National Primate Research Center

Gwyneth Card
Group Leader, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus

Ed Lein
Senior Investigator, Allen Institute for Brain Science; Affiliate Professor of Neurological Surgery, University of Washington

Stephen Streiffer
Deputy Laboratory Director for Science and Technology, Argonne National Laboratory

2:35 pm ET

Q&A with Audience

2:55 pm ET

Closing remarks
John Ngai
Director, NIH Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative

Harriet Kung
Deputy Director for Science Programs, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy

3:00 pm ET

Town Hall ends