This Project will provide support for trainees at the 9th and 10th annual meetings of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (SBN). A founding principle of the SBN is a commitment to undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. These individuals are the future of scientific enterprise, and the annual SBN conference is an opportunity to enhance their education, reward their efforts, appreciate their contributions, and make them part of the academic community. The SBN is a multidisciplinary, international society that promotes research and education concerning hormones, the brain and behavior. The annual SBN conference brings together scientists from many fields, including physiological and developmental psychology, behavioral ecology, animal behavior, chronobiology, psychoneuroendocrinology, neuroscience, cellular and molecular endocrinology, developmental biology, and genetics. In particular, the society encourages the integration of cellular and molecular concepts into a functional framework. The funds from this project will be used for purposes including: (1) a Young Investigator's Symposium, in which eight of the most talented postdocs and senior graduate students will present talks (they were selected in a competition and will receive support to defray much if not all of their expenses in attending the meeting); (2) smaller travel awards to students and postdocs presenting posters (also selected by competition); (3) "meet-the-professor" lunches; and (4) a professional development workshop. The abstracts from talks and posters presented at the conference will be published in Hormones and Behavior, and full manuscripts from the data are then commonly published in a variety of journals focusing on neuroscience, endocrinology and/or behavior.
