Awards

Huttenlocher Award

The Flux community honors Dr. Peter Huttenlocher’s distinguished and pioneering contributions to the field of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience by establishing the Huttenlocher Lecture, which is awarded to an outstanding researcher in the field each year. Dr. Huttenlocher was a pediatric neurologist and neuroscientist who is considered one of the fathers of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.

His prolific body of work using histological approaches began in the 1970’s culminating with groundbreaking publications in the 90’s describing the protracted and hierarchical nature of synaptic pruning in the human brain occurring earliest in the occipital lobe and latest in the frontal lobe. These findings, suggesting a mechanism for ongoing neural plasticity through adolescence into young adulthood, has had great impact not only in developmental science and clinical medicine, but also in the realms of education and law.

In addition to his extraordinary impact on the world of developmental cognitive neuroscience, Dr. Huttenlocher made remarkable contributions to his clinical discipline – pediatric neurology – as a physician, teacher, scientist, and mentor.

Huttenlocher Lecturer – 2020 Congress

Dr. John Gabrieli

Investigator, McGovern Institute, Grover Hermann Professor, Health Sciences and Technology; Professor, Brain and Cognitive Sciences

John Gabrieli is the director of the Athinoula A. Martinos Imaging Center at the McGovern Institute. He is an investigator at the McGovern Institute, with faculty appointments in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the Institute for Medical Engineering & Science, where he holds the Grover Hermann Professorship. He also has appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and is the director of the MIT Integrated Learning Initiative. Prior to joining MIT in 2005, he spent 14 years at Stanford University in the Department of Psychology and Neurosciences Program. He received a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and a BA in English from Yale University.

Past Huttenlocher Lecturers

2019 Congress: BJ Casey, Fundamentals of the Adolescent Brain (FAB) Lab, Yale University – The Rockefeller University

2018 Congress: Uta Frith, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London

2017 Congress: Linda Spear Ph.D. University of Florida
Watch the Lecture

2016 Congress: Michael Posner Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Oregon, USA Adjunct Professor at Weill Medical College

2015 Congress: Mark H Johnson
Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development School of Psychology, Birkbeck College, UK

2014 Congress: Terry L. Jernigan
Professor of Cognitive Science, Psychiatry, and Radiology
Director, University of California, San Diego Center for Human Development, USA
Watch the Lecture

2013 Congress: David A. Lewis
Chairman, Department of Psychiatry
UPMC Endowed Professor in Translational Neuroscience
Medical Director and Director of Research
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
Director Translational Neuroscience Program
Director NIMH Conte Center for the Neuroscience of Mental Disorders
University of Pittsburgh, USA

Young Investigator Award

The Young Investigator Award in Cognitive Neuroscience, supported by Kennedy Krieger Institute, recognizes outstanding contributions by scientists early in their careers. Award recipients have been working in the area of cognitive neuroscience for no more than 10 years involved in active independent research. The Young Investigator Award winner receives complimentary registration and a 30-minute presentation slot at the 2020 Flux Congress.

2020 Young Investigator Winner

Dylan Gee

Yale University

Dr. Dylan Gee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Yale University where she directs the Clinical Affective Neuroscience and Development Laboratory. She received her B.A. in Psychological and Brain Studies from Dartmouth College and her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from UCLA. Prior to joining the faculty at Yale in 2016, Dr. Gee completed her clinical internship and postdoctoral training at Weill Cornell Medical College. Her research focuses on developmental psychopathology, with primary goals to delineate typical and atypical trajectories of brain development, elucidate how early environments influence sensitive periods in affective development, and translate knowledge of the developing brain to optimize interventions for children and adolescents with anxiety and stress-related disorders. Dr. Gee’s research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the Jacobs Foundation, and the American Psychological Association. Her research has received broad recognition, including an NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association of Psychological Science, and the Society of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology’s Abidin Early Career Award.

Eligibility

For the 2020 awards, the nominee MUST be:

Doing research in any area of developmental cognitive neuroscience
No more than 10 years involved in active independent research as of April 1, 2020
Residency, clinical internship and interruption for childbearing will not be counted against the 10-year limit
Nominated by a Flux member (no self-nominations will be accepted)
Have a PhD and/or MD degree
In attendance at the 2020 meeting to accept the award in person and agree to give a special plenary lecture

Submitting a Nomination

Before submitting a nomination, collect the required materials:

Contact information for the nominee
A PDF or Word Document of the nominee’s CV
A short (max 600) word statement of the nominee’s research program
A PDF or Word Document of a nomination statement from the primary referee
Contact information for a second referee

When submitting your nomination, please send all documentation in a PDF or Word document and NOT in the body of the email. For questions please contact us.

Past Young Investigator Winners

2019 Winner: Eva Telzer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2018 Winner: Leah Somerville, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University

2017 Winner: Dr. Damien Fair, Oregon Health & Science University

Flux Dissertation Award sponsored by the Bezos Family Foundation

The Flux Congress is committed to investing in the scientific and professional development of its trainees. To this end, we are pleased to announce the Flux Student Dissertation Award, sponsored by the Bezos Family Foundation. The purpose of this honor is to recognize an exceptional, rigorous, and meticulous dissertation by one of the Congress’ trainee members. The awardee will receive a 15 minute spotlight talk, including questions, and a complimentary registration to the Flux Congress. Please note: you can only be nominated once for this award.

Flux 2020 Dissertation Award Winner

Denise Werchan

New York University

Dr. Denise Werchan is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Population Health at the New York University School of Medicine, working with Drs. Clancy Blair, Moriah Thomason, and Natalie Brito. She received her B.S. in Psychology from the University of Arizona. Afterwards, she completed her Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from Brown University, supervised by Dr. Dima Amso. Her dissertation research examined how the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and executive functions support learning and contribute to complexity in thought and action as early as infancy. This work addressed a critical gap in understanding how learning is accomplished in the developing brain in the absence of clear patterns or statistics that guide learning. Her ongoing research explores how developing neural and behavioral systems that support executive functions, learning, and attention are shaped by environmental factors, including maternal health, parenting practices, stress/adversity, and socioeconomic variability. She examines these questions using a combined-methods approach integrating behavioral, eye tracking, physiological, computational, and neuroimaging methods, such as functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).

Criteria for the award:

The applicant/nominee must be a member
The applicant/nominee’s work must show originality and significance
The applicant/nominee must be committed to the field of Developmental Neuro & show promise of a career in this field
Thesis defense must occur between May 1, 2019- June 15, 2020

Application materials:

1. A letter of nomination/recommendation from the student’s research advisor that documents the student’s status, the level of independence of the student’s contribution. Note: the letter of nomination for this award has to be by a regular member (non-student) and should focus on discussing the quality of the nominee’s dissertation research.
2. Applicant’s current CV.
3. Applicant’s abstract.
4. A summary of the dissertation, not to exceed 7 double-spaced pages

Past Dissertation Winners

2019 Winner: Katie Insel, Columbia University Zuckerman Institute

Student Travel Awards

During the abstract submission process, we invite post-doc and graduate students to apply for Flux Travel Awards. These awards will be reviewed by the Scientific Program Committee and will be allocated based on scientific merit and an evaluation of a written application.

Winners of the 2019 Flux Travel Awards

MICHELLE ACHTERBERG, Leiden University
MARJOLEIN BARENDSE, University of Melbourne / University of Oregon
LAURA DE LA FUENTE, LPEN
KATHY DO, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
SAMUEL FORBES, University of East Anglia
ARIANNA GARD, University of Michigan
KATIE INSEL,, Harvard University
BART LARSEN, University of Pennsylvania
ASHLEY NIELSEN, Washington University in St. Louis
MATTHEW PEVERILL, University of Pittsburgh
GIORGIA PICCI, Pennsylvania State University
LAURA QUINONES-CAMACHO, University of Pittsburgh
KRISTINA RAPUANO, Yale University
CHIARA SACCHI, University of Padova
ELINA THOMAS, Oregon Health & Science University
JIN WANG, Vanderbilt University

Winners of the 2018 Flux Travel Awards

ELOISE CAMERON MURDOCH, Childrens Research Institute/University of Melbourne
LIA FERSCHMANN, University of Oslo
DELIA FUHRMANN, University of Cambridge
JOAO GUASSI MOREIRA, University of California, Los Angeles
TERESA IUCULANO, Universite’ Paris Descartes – Sorbonne Paris
EDUARD KLAPWIJK, Leiden University
KATHERINE LOPEZ, Washington University in St Louis
SCOTT MAREK, Washington University in St. Louis
ROSEMARIE PERRY, New York University
CHRISTINA ROGERS, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
NOELIA SÁNCHEZ PÉREZ, University of Murcia
MARION VAN DEN HEUVEL, Tilburg University
QIJING YU, Wayne State University

Winners of the 2017 Flux Travel Awards

LM WIERENGA, Leiden University
JONATHAN HOLM-SKJOLD, University of Copenhagen
KATE NUSSENBAUM, University of Oxford
AMALIE EKSTRAND, Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance
ANITA MONTAGNA, King’s College London
BARBARA BRAAMS, Harvard University
SCOTT MAREK, University of Pittsburgh
SYLVIA RUSNAK, Georgetown University
JULIET DAVIDOW, Harvard University
CHARLOTTE HELENIAK, University of Washington
KRISTEN TUMMELTSHAMMER, Brown University
DAVID PIEKARSKI, University of California Berkeley
WAN CHEN LIN, University of California Berkeley
SUNG JUN JOO, University of Washington
CHELSEA HARMON, Columbia University

Winners of the 2016 Flux Travel Awards

MICHELLE ACHTERBERG Leiden University

LAUREN DEMERS University of Minnesota

SILA GENC Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

MARIA JALBRZIKOWSKI University of California, Los Angeles

BART LARSEN University of Pittsburgh

CORINNA LAUBE Max Planck Institute for Human Development

LUCIA MAGIS-WEINBERG University College London

CHARLES MALPAS Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

JANESSA MANNING Wayne State University

LILLIAN MATTHEWS Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School

DUSTIN MORACZEWSKI University of Maryland, College Park

JASON NOMI University of Miami

ZDENA OP DE MACKS UC Berkeley

DAVID PAGLIACCIO Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience

JEROD RASMUSSEN Univ. of California, Irvine

Science of Learning Symposium

The Science of Learning Symposium, sponsored by the Jacobs Foundation, highlights early career scientists who are identified based on merit and overall fit with the Flux mission.

2019 Science of Learning Symposium presenters

STEPHANIE DECROSS, Harvard University
JULIA MOSER, University of Tübingen
RACHEL ROMEO, MIT & Boston Children’s Hospital

2018 Science of Learning Symposium presenters

TERESA IUCULANO, Université Paris – Sorbonne
DUNCAN ASTLE, University of Cambridge
TORKEL KLINGSBERG, Karolinska Institutet

2017 Science of Learning Symposium presenters

GREGOIRE BORST, Paris Descartes University
JASON YEATMAN, University of Washington
CAROLYN JOHNSON, Harvard University
OLA OZERNOV-PALCHIK, Tufts University

2016 Science of Learning Symposium presenters

SAMANTHA DEPASQUE UCLA

ALYSSA KERSEY University of Rochester

WOUTER VAN DEN BOS Max Planck Institute for Human Development