The White House pause on federal grants is unprecedented and highly disruptive to the entire scientific community. The Administration has frozen previously approved and authorized funds, including reimbursements for funds already spent. These disruptive choices will impact students and trainees who rely on grants, funded investigators, and patients waiting for critical discoveries and treatments, in addition to having an economic impact for employees and employers at universities and organizations that are economic drivers in the U.S.

In light of the very recent federal executive actions that affect NIH including a freeze on hiring, study sections, Advisory Council meetings, travel, and communications, I wanted to reach out to all of you today. While these actions are in some cases without precedent, many of them have been applied more broadly across many or most federal agencies by the new Administration, and it will be some time before we understand any possible lasting impacts on NIH specifically. My hope is that this action will be short-lived.

Earlier this month, SfN held a membership vote on a proposed amendment to Article 5 of the Articles of Incorporation and revisions to the SfN Bylaws. The vote closed on Thursday, December 12, 5 p.m. EST, with more than 90% of the votes in support of these changes. The SfN Council is now empowered to adapt SfN’s membership structure to better reflect changes in the field.

SfN and The Kavli Foundation announced a new, four-part webinar series, “Neural Adaptation in Changing Ecosystems,” aimed at increasing awareness and knowledge about the science of neurobiology and changing environments.

Over the last year, SfN Council has been reviewing how the Society could evolve its membership program to better meet the progressing needs of the field. Part of this review included the appointment of a Working Group on SfN Individual Membership, co-chaired by two members of Council.

The integrity of the scientific mission is a collective responsibility, and the Society for Neuroscience plays an integral part in ensuring the public’s trust in the scientific enterprise. SfN takes seriously the role of leading the field in its commitment to professional and ethical conduct, and in light of a number of recent high-profile scientific misconduct cases, the importance of this commitment is more vital than ever to ensuring the public’s ongoing understanding of and trust in the scientific enterprise.

Professor John J. Hopfield at Princeton University and Professor Geoffrey E. Hinton at the University of Toronto, Canada, were awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for their foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks. Hopfield was the recipient of the 2012 SfN Swartz Prize for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience.

The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is pleased to announce the three Gold Sponsors of SfN’s annual meeting, Neuroscience 2024: Johnson & Johnson, Ncardia, and Nxera Pharma.

The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is supporting 445 neuroscience trainees to attend Neuroscience 2024, SfN’s annual meeting and the world’s largest gathering of neuroscientists, through the Trainee Professional Development Award (TPDA) program. Over $560,000 in generous donations — the largest amount raised for this program — were contributed by individual donors to the Friends of SfN Fund, foundation and corporate supporters, and SfN Council. SfN Council leads this TPDA fundraising initiative and matched many of the donations.

The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mihaela Iordanova to the eNeuro Editorial Board as Deputy Editor-in-Chief.