The Australasian Society for Social and Affective
Neuroscience (AS4SAN) is a non-profit organisation that aims to promote basic
and applied research investigating social and affective behaviour across a wide
range of different species using a wide variety of neuroscience and
neuropsychological techniques. AS4SAN sees social and affective neuroscience as
an interdisciplinary field devoted to the study of central nervous system
mechanisms (e.g., neural, hormonal, cellular, genetic) underlying social and
affective behaviour, in the context of both normal development and functioning,
as well as relevant to clinical disorders.
This week, Dr Michelle Kelly (AS4SAN Vice President) led a
conference committee of UON researchers Dr Linda Campbell and Professor Frances
Martin in convening the society’s 6th annual meeting at NewSpace, University of
Newcastle). A team of 6 students (RHD and undergraduate) also assisted with
conference organisation and running.
It was the first time that the conference was hosted in
Newcastle and we attracted 60 delegates representing Australia (12
universities), UK, USA and Germany. In keeping with the tradition of the
conference, we had a single stream format consisting of 3 invited keynote
speakers, 23 platform presentations, 14 datablitz presentations and 10 poster
presentations. AS4SAN is dedicated to supporting student researchers and this
is evident with 40% of the overall platform presentations and 64% of the
overall poster and datablitz sessions being presented by students. AS4SAN is
also proud to say they are working towards gender equity across all society
activities. We had two female Keynote speakers (Dr Izelle Labuschagne and Dr
Belinda Craig), and 62% of conference presenters overall were female.
We held welcome drinks at Brain @ Watt Space exposing the
exhibit to 40 researchers across the country, and were pleased to have
Professor Kristen Pammer attend and officially open the meeting. We held two
preconference workshops and thank our local presenters Dr Bryan Paton and Dr
Elise Kalokerinos for their time and expertise. I think all those who attended
would agree that these were top quality workshops. This conference provided a
platform for 8 UON students and 4 UON staff to present their research.
Overall the conference was very successful, enjoyed by all!
The conference organisers and AS4SAN Executive Committee
thank the sponsors: Centre for Brain and Mental Health Research, Faculty of
Science, School of Psychology, AD Instruments, Medilink and SR Research.
