Outreach & Events

Current & Upcoming Events

Here you find a list of the current and upcoming events that our lab or members of our lab are involved in.

28/07/2024 - 2/08/2024 Symposium at ICN2024

Karl Farrow and Katja are co-chairing a symposium on "Neural Basis of Flexible Innate Behaviors" at the Neuroethology meeting in Berlin!

Lucia will attend the conference to get some first impressions of Neuroethology.

25-29/06/2024 -Lorenza @FENS2024

Lorenza will attend FENS2024 and present her insights on optimal conditions for innate behavior experiments.

Outreach

It is an important part of our duties to inform the public about newest insights in a format that is understandable, and to explain the value of our work. Tax payers' money is the main funding source for many science labs and we should make the outcome of that science accessible to the general public. Furthermore, voices against experiments that involve animals have become louder in the past years, often due to a lack of information and understanding of what is done and why. We aim to inform interested laymen, voters and policy makers about our research to provide them with a better understanding and illustrate the knowledge we can gain from those experiments. 

Here you can find information about our recent outreach events. If you are interested in our research for an event for non-scientists, please contact katja.reinhard[at]sissa.it.

Skype a Scientist

Skype a scientist (https://www.skypeascientist.com/, https://twitter.com/skypescientist) is a platform that brings together school classes and other interested laymen with scientists. We have so far participated twice:

January 2022: 4th graders in California, USA, were part of an interactive lecture about the brain of toads and how it allows them to avoid danger and identify interesting things like food. The students asked excellent questions ("If the toad can distinguish between a horizontal stimulus, which means food like a worm, and a vertical stimulus, which means danger like a stork, what would happen if the stork was lying down?").

May 2022: Several classes of 4th graders in Florida, USA, were part of a similar lecture where they learned about animals avoiding danger and approaching food. 

Trieste Next 

Trieste Next is an annual festival for science. SISSA's contributions are organized by our press office and our lab is usually involved either in planning of activities and/or by volunteering during the festival itself. This year, Katja is helping again with identifying and planning of neuroscience-related activities about the topic "Gli orizzonti dell'intelligenza. La Conoscenza tra essere umano e tecnologie" (The horizons of intelligence. The Knowledge between humans and technology.). The 2024 edition is happening on the 27-29 of September. 

Past Events

4-6/07/2023 TEX2023 Symposium

Together with colleagues from the cognitive neuroscience area, we are organizing a small symposium at SISSA on Efficient coding and processing for perception and action with a great speaker line-up!

 21/09/2023 - 22/10/2023 Questa Volta metti in scena… L’ESSERE 

An anual photo exhibition, organized by Opera Viva and the artist Lorena Matic. This year, Alessia Soldano, with help from Katja, is overseeing the scientific aspects.