Neuroscience 2009, the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Japan Neuroscience Society, will be held in the city of Nagoya. I would like to express my gratitude to the many people who have supported and collaborated in so many different ways with the preparations so far.
In addition to the plenary lectures, special lectures, and Tokizane Award and Tsukahara Award lectures, the Meeting will include 47 symposia (with 231 presentations), 53 regular oral presentation sessions (235 presentations), and 1,222 poster presentations, with the total of 1,698 presentations making this the largest meeting held by the JNS alone in its history and offering an exceptionally full program.
During the past few years, the JNS has been actively promoting the use of English, and has endeavored to make its Annual Meeting more international. As a result, we now welcome numerous participants from overseas. Neuroscience 2009 will incorporate special programs including joint symposia with the North American Society for Neuroscience (SfN), the Federation of European Neurosciences (FENS), and the Australian Neuroscience Society (ANS); a joint seminar offered by Japan Science Promotion Agency and Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR); and a seminar organized by young researchers held as a collaborative project with a German research promotion agency. These many international events mean that attendance at the Meeting offers the opportunity to engage with international trends. The Travel Award, too, attracted 126 applications, the largest number ever, and the 31 prizewinners selected from among them will also attend the Meeting. A large number of leading international researchers will in fact give presentations during symposia and at other events. The Annual Meeting of the JNS
is thus well on the way to becoming an attractive venue for researchers to present the results of their latest research and obtain information in international terms, a fact that brings me great satisfaction as an organizer.
Brain science today is attracting attention from society at large in a variety of ways. In light of advice from the Minister of Education, a Brain Science Committee was established that deliberated for 18 months before producing a report entitled “The Basic Concept of Brain Research and Measures for its Promotion From a Long-Term Perspective,” and in June 2009 a verdict was returned to the Minister from the Council for Science and Technology. This included praise for the concept of brain science as a “comprehensive human science.” Brain science now includes not only a current of research that is attempting to understand brain function by integrating understandings at a range of different levels in terms of biological sciences, from molecules, cells, and neural circuits through to individual organisms, but also research oriented toward understanding the causes of psychological and neurological disorders and developing treatments, and is in the process of expanding in scope by means of collaboration with science and engineering and integration with the humanities and social sciences.
Neuroscience 2009 will concentrate the current status of brain science into a single meeting. It is my hope that participants will find it a stimulating venue where their ideas can be renewed with a view to future research.