2004 Neuroscience News: Congratulations to Edgar Rodriguez for his fine performance in the COM Medical Guild college wide competition that was held on April 27th! Edgar took fourth place for his seminar titled "Post-transcriptional Repression of Striatal Mutant Huntingtin in a Model of Huntington's Disease". Congratulations to Dr. Carmen Soccaras Peden and Dr. Yan Zhang! Carmen (mentor: Ron Mandel) and Yang (mentor: Sue Semple-Rowland) recently successfully defended their Ph.D. dissertations and participated in the first commencement ceremony for biomedical science M.S. and Ph.D. graduates of the Colleges of Dentistry, Medicine, and Veterinary Medicine. Carmen will be continuing her medical education here at UF and Yan will be joining Dr. Stuart Dryer's laboratory at the University of Houston. UF IDP Neuroscience Medical Guild Competition The medical guild research symposium held March 10th was simply terrific! Each student presenter was outstanding and are to be congratulated for their efforts. The winner of the competition this year is Edgar Rodriguez. Second and third places were awarded to Rebecca Ellis and Noah Walton. Again, congratulations to all for making this one of the best competitions ever. Pictured from left: Edgar Rodriguez, Noah Walton, Rebecca Ellis, Stephen Larner, Eugene Martin and Paul Wright Congratulations to Rebecca Ellis. Rebecca was recently awarded a $2500 research grant-in-aid from the Robinson Endowment of the TMH Foundation to help support her research on spinal cord injury. She will be giving a brief overview of her work at an award dinner that is scheduled for June 10, 2004 at 6 pm in the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital auditorium. Congratulations to Dr. Lucia Notterpek! Lucia recently was awarded the 2004 Jordi Folch-Pi Memorial Award from the American Society for Neurochemistry (ASN). This award is given annually “…to an outstanding young investigator who has demonstrated a high level of research competence and originality, who has significantly advanced our knowledge of neurochemistry and who shows a high degree of potential for future accomplishments”. The award consists of a cash prize and the opportunity to organize a symposium at the 36th ASN Annual Meeting in 2005. Lucia will be recognized and will receive the Jordi Folch-Pi Memorial Award in August at the 35th Annual Meeting of the ASN. Congratulations to Dr. Dena Howland and Dr. Joey Velardo! Dr. Howland and Dr. Velardo were both recently named as UF College of Medicine Exemplary Teachers for 2004. Congratulations to Dr. Prodip Bose! His research poster presentation was selected for the award of Best Basic Science Poster at the 2004 COM Research Day held April 27th. Congratulations to the 2004 Summer Doctoral Neuroscience IDP Graduates! The faculty and student members of the Neuroscience IDP program wish you all the best in your future professional pursuits. Ray Beck Stephen Larner Michael Presti Clair Ringger Kyle Roux Rebecca Ellis Congratulations to the 2004 Fall Doctoral Neuroscience IDP Graduates! The faculty and student members of the Neuroscience IDP program wish you all the best in your future professional pursuits. Erik Johnson Ann Chokas