About

The annual INCF Congress series

The INCF Neuroinformatics Congress welcomes researchers in all fields related to neuroinformatics, including data- and knowledge-bases of the nervous system from molecular to behavioral levels; tools for the acquisition, analysis, and visualization of nervous system data; and theoretical, computational, and simulation environments for modeling the brain. 

Neuroinformatics 2011

This year's program committee is headed by Professor Mitsuo Kawato, director at ATR Brain Information Communication Research Laboratory Group in Japan who was himself a keynote speaker at the Stockholm Congress in 2008:

Program Committee

• Mitsuo Kawato (Chair, ATR, Japan)
• David N. Kennedy (UMass Medical School, USA)
• Upinder S. Bhalla (NCBS, India)
• Jan Bjaalie (U. Oslo, Norway)
• Fritz Sommer (UC Berkeley, USA)
• Kenji Doya (OIST, Japan)
• Jeanette Hellgren Kotaleski (KTH, Sweden)
• Sean Hill (EPFL/INCF, Switzerland/Sweden)
• David Van Essen (U. Washington in St Louis,USA)
• Pontus Holm (Secretary, INCF, Sweden)
  

Local Organizing Committee

• David N. Kennedy, Chair (UMass Medical School)
• Randy Buckner (Harvard University)
• Blaise Frederick (Harvard Medical School)
• Michael Hasselmo (Boston University)            
• Ron Kikinis (Harvard Medical School)
• Jean King (UMass Medical School)
  
• Maryann Martone (UCSD)
• Bruce R. Rosen (Harvard Medical School)
• Alan Ruttenberg (Science Commons)
• Clifford Saper (Harvard Medical School)

David Kennedy, from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the US INCF National Node, heads the local organizing committee.

Attendee contributions

Participants' presentations are vital components of the Neuroinformatics Congresses. The Boston meeting features two sessions with traditional posters and live computer demonstrations. Due to popular demand, these sessions have been given additional program space. The program committee will also select a small number of poster or demo abstracts for oral “spotlight” presentations. Abstract submission is open!

The annual INCF Neuroinformatics Congress has proven to be a good place for match making between research institutes and researchers. To facilitate this process, there will be a job board by the posters and demos where attendees can post and look for openings.

History

Neuroinformatics 2008 link

The first Neuroinformatics Congress was held in 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden, and attracted 267 attendees. The venue was beautiful Norra Latin in the very center of the city. The keynote speakers were this year's program committee chair, Mitsuo Kawato, the 2009 INCF Director Mark Ellisman, the 2010 program committee chair David Van Essen, Blue Brain Director Henry Markram, CalTech's Mary Kennedy and Frontiers in Neuroscience editor-in-chief Idan Segev. The keynote lectures can be viewed at the INCF YouTube channel.

Neuroinformatics 2009 link

The 2009 Neuroinformatics Congress took place in Pilsen, Czech Republic, and attracted 213 participants. In addition to the regular Congress program, this meeting featured an array of satellite meetings and courses, ranging from workshops on sensory neuroinformatics and neuroinformatics training to courses in image processing and Python programming. The attendees will always remember the visit to the Pilsner Urquell brewery and the subsequent beer testing and dinner. Keynote speakers were Shankar Subramaniam (UCSD), Astrid Prinz (Emory U), Arthur Toga (UCLA), Alon Halevy (Google), Andrew Schwartz (U Pittsburgh), and Kenji Doya (OIST).

Neuroinformatics 2010 link

The third INCF Congress was held in Kobe, Japan. It attracted 227 participants whereof half were from Japan and with an increased representation also of researchers from other east Asian countries. As a response to popular demand, the 2010 Congress featured two poster and demo sessions instead of one. The welcome reception featured a Noh play, a highly exclusive traditional Japanese masked song and dance drama, as well as the award ceremony for the INCF Image Competition. Keynote speakers were Upinder Bhalla (NCBS), Ryohei Kanzaki (U Tokyo), Maryann Martone (UCSD), Colin Ingram (U Newcastle), and Lee Hood (Institute for Systems Biology). The keynote lectures, the workshop talks and also the INCF Japan Node special session lectures can all be viewed at the INCF YouTube channel.