This year's guest is Prof. Anne Churchland (Professor of Neurobiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA).

Prof. Churchland's work has reshaped how we think about the neural basis of decision-making. Her lab studies how animals combine evidence from multiple senses — sights and sounds — with internal signals such as prior expectations and biases in order to commit to a choice. Using large-scale recordings across the cortex, her group showed that neural activity during decisions is shaped not only by the task at hand but by the animal’s own uninstructed movements, a finding that changed how the field interprets trial-to-trial variability in the brain. She is a founding member of the International Brain Laboratory, a collaboration spanning dozens of labs working towards a brain-wide account of decision-making, and the creator of Anne’s List, a widely used resource for improving the representation of women in systems and computational neuroscience.

In this year’s Talking Science program, participants will be able to meet Prof. Churchland in small groups, join roundtable discussions on career choices and scientific trajectories, and attend her keynote lecture. The event provides a unique opportunity to engage with a leading figure in neuroscience.

Please sign up for events here! Places are limited, so secure your spot early!

Thursday 29 October

9.00-10.30 - GSN seminar room (D00.003), LMU Biocenter Martinsried

Roundable Discussion
A group discussion focusing on Prof. Churchland's career and her advice for young researchers today.

11.00 - 12.30 - GSN seminar room (D00.003), LMU Biocenter Martinsried

Roundable Discussion
A group discussion focusing on Prof. Churchland's scientific contributions and insights.

12.30 - 13.30

Lunch with students and postdocs
An informal lunch with Prof. Churchland and students and postdocs.

14.00 - 15.30

1-on-1 student meetings
Personal meetings with Prof. Churchland to discuss your own research and ideas (20-minute slots). Please sign up early, as places are limited.

17.00 - Large lecture hall (B00.019), LMU Biocenter Martinsried

Keynote lecture: TBD
A public lecture open to the broader scientific community.

19.00 - Martinsried

Dinner with students
A social dinner to round off the visit.

Friday 30 October

9.00 - 10.30 - GSN seminar room (D00.003), LMU Biocenter Martinsried

Open Discussion
A forum for open conversation on career paths in science, challenges, and opportunities.

11.00 - 17.00 - GSN seminar room (D00.003), LMU Biocenter Martinsried

1-on-1 student meetings
Additional personal meeting slots.

2025

György Buzsáki (NYU School of Medicine)

2024

Eve Marder (Brandeis University)

2022

Peter Dayan (Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics)

2021

Ilana Witten (Princeton University)

2019

Adrienne Fairhall (U Washington)

2018

Matteo Carandini (UCL)

2017

Christof Koch (Allen Institute for Brain Science) - cancelled

2016

Gina Turrigiano (Brandeis University)

2015

Gilles Laurent (MPI for Brain Research)

2014

Ed Boyden (MIT)

2013

Larry Abbott (Columbia University)

2012

Nikos Logothetis (MPI for Biological Cybernetics)

2011

May-Britt Moser (Kavli Institute of Systems Neuroscience)

2010

Karel Svoboda (Janelia Research Campus)

2009

Markus Meister (Caltech)

Talking Science is made possible through the generous support of the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Munich and organized by:

• Carlos Gomez-Guzman (MPI for Biological Intelligence)
• Divyansh Gupta (TUM)
• Jonathan Gant (LMU)
• Lukas Meyer-Olbersleben (LMU)