President's Perspective

I cannot believe it’s April already. There are new experiments to set up in the lab, the campus is buzzing with students, and the long queues for coffee at the refectory are infuriating. Still, it’s great to see so much activity on campus.

Although it seems like a long time ago now, I still have vivid memories of the 2025 ANS Annual Scientific Meeting in Hobart. Among the many highlights were the excellent plenary lectures by Marina Mikhaylova (Humboldt University), Alex Fornito (Monash University), Miriam Matamales (University of New South Wales), Peter Crack (University of Melbourne), and Melinda Fitzgerald (Curtin University). I also enjoyed the many symposia, open talks and posters, and I was particularly impressed by the quality and variety of work presented by students and early career researchers. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jenna Ziebell (Conference Executive Chair), Brad Sutherland (Chair of the Local Organising Committee), and the entire Hobart conference team for hosting such an engaging and successful meeting.

On that note, I am excited to announce that ANS will hold its 2026 Annual Scientific Meeting jointly with the Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society (ACNS) and Biological Psychiatry Australia (BPA). The combined meeting, which we have badged as the “Australasian Neuroscience Alliance”, will take place at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney from 29 November – 2 December. It will offer an opportunity for members with closely aligned interests to come together and share their discoveries, in addition to affording valuable networking opportunities. Lezanne Ooi (University of Wollongong) has been appointed as the Conference Executive Chair for the 2026 meeting, and Natalie Matosin (University of Sydney) is the Chair of the Local Organising Committee. Please make a note of the dates in your diary, as this promises to be a very special meeting. Also, look out for the call for symposium proposals, which should appear in your inbox by the end of March.

I would also like to remind everyone that we will soon be calling for nominations for the ANS Annual Awards. These include the A.W. Campbell, Nina Kondelos, Paxinos-Watson, Mark Rowe, Marcello Costa, and Education Excellence Awards. In addition, I am pleased to announce that Council has approved a new award to commence in 2026 called the “ANS Mid-Career Research Excellence Award”. As the name suggests, this accolade is aimed at recognising a published paper by a researcher who is currently 5-10 years post-PhD. Further information about the award will be available shortly on the ANS website.

We will also soon be calling for nominations for the 2026 round of the ANS Finkel Foundation Travelling Fellowships. These Fellowships, valued at up to $50,000 each, aim to provide career development opportunities to early and mid-career ANS Members based in Australia or New Zealand by supporting a “mini-sabbatical” to a host laboratory with world-leading expertise relevant to development of brain-computer interfaces or related areas of innovative neurotechnology. Congratulations to the 2025 recipients of Finkel Foundation Travelling Fellowships, Dr Christina Mo (Florey Institute, University of Melbourne), Dr Barbora Fulopova (Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland) and Dr Jingjing You (University of Sydney).