The Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) 2020 Virtual Forum took place between 11-15 July 2020 and brought together more than 5,000 participants, including the Institute's Colin Crawford.

Here the PhD student provides us with an overview of his experience ...

PhD student Colin Crawford pictured in front of his laptop participating in FENS 2020

One of the world’s largest neuroscience conferences, FENS 2020, was scheduled to take place in Glasgow this month.

The organisers had a herculean task of moving the conference to a virtual platform whilst still ensuring that networking and engagement took place.

As a third year PhD student, engaging with other academics and discussing my work is vital. So I presented a virtual poster, and by using social media to advertise it, I was able attract a substantial audience and ignite discussions. In fact, my poster made it into the top 10 per cent viewed posters!

Despite the conference taking place 'in the cloud' and not, as we would have preferred, on the ground in Glasgow, we shared a bit of the city's flair.

Dr Julia Edgar hosted a symposium on neuron-glia metabolic coupling, where she and pioneers in the field, Pierre Magistretti, Klaus-Armin Nave and Stefanie Schiermier, presented their latest research and held a live Q&A session.

I helped Julia organise a fantastic whisky-tasting evening for aficionados of glia and energy metabolism, which was attended by participants in Europe and the USA – from their very own living rooms.

We even hosted a senior figure from the journal Science - so all in all it proved to be a useful networking experience for both me and my Institute colleagues.

- Colin Crawford

First published: 6 August 2020

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