/BN, Duppé/ After 12 scientifically excellent presentations in spring and fall 2021, the jury of the Bernstein SmartSteps Award chose three equal winners in an anonymous vote. Henning Sprekeler (member of the jury together with Laura Busse, Athanasia Papoutsi and Friedemann Zenke) spoke of an “exceptionally strong field of young scientists whose presentations were convincing both scientifically and rhetorically”.

Especially during the pandemic, which mainly granted visibility mainly to PIs, this offer provided a great scientific incentive for young scientists. The jury felt honored to contribute to the series and was pleased that “in this tough scientific field of Computational Neuroscience, three women won the competition” (Laura Busse), an opinion shared by all jury members with equal enthusiasm. The jury also thanked the Bernstein Network, who quickly and without much ado agreed to top up the prize money of €1500 to €3000 in order to do justice to the excellent selection.

During the online award ceremony on January 12, 2022, the three winners felt very honored and thanked the jury and the organizers for the opportunity to present their research to the international scientific community. The appeal of the three women’s research is that their work elegantly connects experiment and theory – the essential basis of computational neuroscience. The three scientists work on different animal models: insects, mammals and amphibians: Gily Ginosar works on bats and navigation, Miriam Henning focuses on drosophila and vision and Helene Schreyer investigates the retinal system of axolotl salamanders.

The framework, the pre-selection of the speakers and last but not least the final winners prove that the kick-off of the Bernstein SmartSteps Series was a great success.

Bernstein SmartSteps | featuring early career scientists

The Bernstein SmartSteps series kicked off in 2021. Organized by the Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, it offers selected early career scientists the opportunity to present their research projects to the scientific community. The application rounds for the pre-selection in spring and fall already revealed a strong field of young doctoral students and postdocs aspiring to pursuing a scientific career.

Bernstein SmartSteps Award 2021

The Award consists of a professional individual career coaching worth €1000 with SCIEDO. Together with the coach, the awardee will decide whether to focus on the preparation of a personal grant, an upcoming job application or another career relevant topic.