LMU-Harvard Young Scientists’ Forum (YSF)
The LMU-Harvard Young Scientists' Forum (YSF) "From Molecules to Organisms" seeks to unite researchers from Harvard University and LMU Munich through enabling Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows to have contact with core faculty from both universities. The goal is to create a framework for an interdisciplinary, as well as an international exchange of ideas.
The first meeting in the series was held at LMU-Munich in 2009, and a similarly structured meeting was convened at Harvard University in the following year.
16th Harvard-LMU Young Scientists' Forum (Harvard), June 17-19, 2024
This year's Harvard-LMU Young Scientists' Forum took place June 17th - 19th at the Center for Brain Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Harvard faculty lectures were held by Paola Arlotta, Meenakshi Rao, and Jeff Macklis. Additionally, the following Harvard-associated research groups participated at the Harvard-LMU YSF2024:
- Adam Cohen
- Jan Drugowitsch
- Catherine Dulac
- Florian Engert
- Jeff Lichtman
- Venkatesh Murthy
- Cengiz Pehlevan
- Carlos Ponce
- Aravi Samuel
- Haim Sompolinsky
- Hisashi Umemori
- Xiaowei Zhuang
Among the Munich delegation associated with LMU's Munich Center for Neurosciences, e.g., Giacomo Masserdotti, Robert Pernezcky, and Ines Ribero presented faculty lectures. Nominations for participants came from the latter labs, as well as the groups of:
- Thomas Misgeld
- Antje Grosche
- Inga Koerte
- Conny Kopp-Scheinpflug
- Jochen Herms
- Mark Hübener
- Christine Falter-Wagner
- Simone Schütz-Bosbach
- Michael Pecka
- Benedikt Grothe
- Jonas Neher
- Magdalena Götz
- Nadine Gogolla
15th Harvard-LMU Young Scientists' Forum (LMU Munich), July 19-21, 2023
The 2025 Harvard-LMU Young Scientists' Forum was hosted at the LMU Biocenter of the Life Science Campus Martinsried from July 19-21.
In collaboration with the Systems Neurology Excellence Cluster of the LMU and TUM, several groups of the Max-Planck and Helmholtz Societies, and our partners at the Harvard Center for Brain Science, the event was designed to touch on biomedical aspects of research on sensory and cognitive processes, i.e. respective neural disorders - but also on fundamentals of the formation, function, and dynamics of neuronal circuits.
45 scientists presented their data at the 2023 YSF meeting. Among those, 19 Harvard delegation members (PhD students/postdocs/faculty/executives) representing 8 independent research labs, and 26 Munich contributors representing 18 local groups (all labs listed below).
Harvard faculty lectures were held by Mark Andermann, Hisashi Umemori, and Meenakshi Rao. Local faculty lectures were offered by Simon Jacob (TUM), Susanne Koch (LMU), and Christian Haass (LMU).
Harvard PhD and postdoc nominations were received from the labs of: |
Local nominations (LMU/TUM/MPG/HMGU) were received from labs including those of: |
14th Harvard-LMU Young Scientists' Forum was held between July 18-20, 2022 in Cambridge, MA
The meeting was built around sensation/perception as a broad topic, and navigation/foraging as a core theme, not least in the context of natural behavior.
Apart from CBS Executive Director Kenneth Blum, the Center's long-standing faculty member and Director Venkatesh Murthy has taken a role in organizing the 2022 event at Harvard.
Harvard faculty lectures were held by Aleena Garner, Carlos Ponce, and Nick Bellono
In addition, the following labs appointed several nominees to the meeting:
- Jan Drugowitsch, https://drugowitschlab.hms.harvard.edu/
- Catherine Dulac, https://www.dulaclab.com/
- Florian Engert, https://www.engertlab.org/
- Gabriel Kreiman, https://kreimanlab.com/
- Venkatesh Murthy, https://vnmurthylab.org/
- Cengiz Pehlevan, https://pehlevan.seas.harvard.edu/
- Naoshige Uchida, https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/uchidalab/home
Five Munich faculty participants traveled to Cambridge this year: Benedikt Grothe, Mark Hübener, David Keays, Michael Pecka, and Anton Sirota.
The Munich delegation also included 16 nominees from the above-mentioned labs, as well as the groups of:
- Laura Busse
- Maria Robles
- Christine Falter-Wagner
- Marianne Dieterich
- Ruben Portugues / Ilona Grunwald Kadow
- Paul Sauseng
- Moritz Rossner
- Andreas Herz
Sessions touched on spatial orientation and navigation, the roles of different sensory systems and the Hippocampus in this context, as well as aspects of perception and methodical approaches to the matter.
The schedule started with two sessions of four talks each and faculty lectures by David Keays and Nick Bellono on Monday, July 18th.
On Tuesday July 19th the two faculty lectures were held by Benedikt Grothe and Carlos Ponce, complemented by four talks and the traditional poster session, featuring 14 presenters from Harvard and Munich.
Wednesday July 20th officially ended the program with again two sessions of four talks each and faculty lectures by Mark Hübener and Anton Sirota.
Optional lab tours were being offered on Thursday July 21st by Catherine Dulac, Florian Engert, Venkatesh Murthy, Naoshige Uchida, and Nick Bellono to round up the program.
13th Harvard-LMU Young Scientists' Forum, ONLINE from July 12-14, 2021
After last year's canceled event, a total of more than 70 academics from both institutions have met in the first virtually-held Harvard-LMU Young Scientists' Forum.
The schedule of the 13th YSF meeting, covering three late afternoons CET, brought together 42 active participants, who showcased 19 posters and 18 oral presentations featuring 28 labs at Harvard and LMU Munich.
Presentations included a mix of 45-minute lectures and 2-hour sessions for posters and short 20-minute-talks.
Among the participating labs at Harvard who have presented and nominated delegates for the event were the groups of:
- Chinfei Chen
- Ben de Bivort
- Sandeep Robert Datta
- Zhigang He
- Gabriel Kreiman
- Jeffrey Macklis
- Venkatesh Murthy
- Bence Ölveczky (TBC)
- Bernardo Sabatini
- Amar Sahay
- Aravinthan Samuel
- Joshua Sanes
Participating labs from Munich included:
- Alexander Borst (MPIN)
- Laura Busse (LMU)
- Marianne Dieterich (LMU Clinic)
- Magdalena Götz (LMU/HelmholtzCenter)
- Benedikt Grothe (LMU)
- Ilona Grunwald Kadow (TUM)
- Inga Koerte (LMU-Clinic)
- Hernan Lopez-Schier (HelmholtzCenter)
- Martha Merrow (LMU)
- Thomas Misgeld (TUM)
- Jovica Ninkovic (LMU)
- Michael Pecka (LMU)
- Dominik Paquet (LMU Clinic)
- Gerhard Rammes (TUM)
- Anton Sirota (LMU)
- Hans Straka (LMU)
12th Harvard-LMU Young Scientists' Forum (LMU Munich), CANCELLED!
PLEASE NOTE: The event had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
11th Harvard-LMU Young Scientists' Forum (LMU Munich), June 24th-26th, 2019
The 11th meeting of the Harvard-LMU Young Scientists' Forum has taken place June 24th-26th, 2019, at LMU Munich, following a welcome reception at the LMU Center for Advanced Studies on June 23rd.
Similar to the 2018 meeting in Cambridge, the 2019 YSF touched on the formation, function, and dynamics of neuronal structures, as well as cognition and behavior with some emphasis on neural circuits in localization, spatial processing, and navigation.
The meeting was once again complemented by an optional excursion on June 27th, to continue the scientific discussions in a different setting.
Among the 40 scientists who presented their data at the 2019 YSF, were 16 Harvard delegation members (PhD students/postdocs/faculty) representing 12 Harvard labs, and 24 Munich contributors representing 20 local groups.
Harvard faculty members Lisa Goodrich, Takao Hensch, and Venkatesh Murthy were present in Munich, together with CBS executive director Kenneth Blum.
The delegation includes a total of 16 participants*, with further PhD and postdoc nominations from the labs of: |
Local nominations* have been made from labs including those of: |
* All participants are indicated in the Meeting Schedule.
10th Harvard-LMU Young Scientists' Forum (Harvard), July 23-25, 2018
The anniversary 10th meeting of the Harvard-LMU Young Scientists' Forum took place July 23-25, at the Center for Brain Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The schedule comprised the guests' arrival on July 22, an optional excursion on July 26, and departures on July 27.
As in previous years, a Munich delegation of faculty members and postdocs/advanced PhD students have met a matching number of participants from Harvard for an in-depth exchange on topics ranging from molecular and circuit neuroscience to computational, behavioral, and clinical research areas.
As a long-standing local faculty member, Venkatesh Murthy has taken a central role in organizing the 2018 event at Harvard, together with CBS executive director Kenneth Blum. Other Harvard faculty members such as Dragana Rogulja, Sam Gershman, and CBS academic director Joshua Sanes presented their latest research. The faculty delegation from Munich included Martin Biel, Laura Busse, Antje Grosche, Benedikt Grothe, and Martha Merrow. 37 postdocs and advanced PhD students from 23 laboratories - 11 of which at Harvard (e.g. Rick Born, Jeff Lichtman, Florian Engert, Bence Ölveczky, Jan Drugowitsch), and 12 in Munich at the TU and LMU, as well as Max-Planck and Helmholtz Institutes of the Munich area, e.g. labs of Stefan Lichtenthaler, Matthias Mann, Andreas Herz, Anton Sirota, Ilona Grunwald Kadow, Marianne Dieterich - formed the group of participants. During the YSF excursion (optional; day 4), scientific discussions between Harvard and Munich delegation members were continued in a more informal setting.
Both participating and nominating faculty members, as well as executive representatives, have indicated an interest in maintaining the YSF-Format in the years to come. We are looking forward to the 11th return of the YSF in 2019 - to be hosted in Munich.
A special moment during the 2018 meeting
9th Harvard-LMU Young Scientists' Forum (LMU), July 2017
The 2017 YSF meeting took place at LMU Biocenter and Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) between the 23rd and 26th of July.
Visiting Harvard Faculty
Benjamin de Bivort
Zhigang He
Luk Vandenberghe
Harvard delegation
The Harvard delegation encompassed advanced PhD students and postdocs from the labs of Benjamin de Bivort, Kevin Eggan, Florian Engert, Zhigang He, Jeffrey Macklis, Venkatesh Murthy, Sharad Ramanathan, Bernardo Sabatini, Joshua Sanes, and Luk Vandenberghe.
Munich nominations and faculty lectures from the labs of Herwig Baier (MPIN), Martin Biel (LMU), Tobias Bonhoeffer (MPIN), Alexander Borst (MPIN), Laura Busse (LMU), Nadine Gogolla (MPIN), Magdalena Götz (LMU), Benedikt Grothe (LMU), Ilona Grunwald (TUM), Rüdiger Klein (MPIN), Stefan Lichtenthaler (TUM), Hernan Lopez-Schier (HMGU), Stylianos Michalakis (LMU), Anton Sirota (LMU), Carsten Wotjak (MPIPsy).
8th Harvard-LMU Young Scientists' Forum (Harvard), July 9th - 11th, 2016
The meeting took place at the Center for Brain Science and the Harvard Medical School. Traditionally, the yearly alternating format covers a broad range of topics ranging from Biochemistry and Genetics to Translational Neuroscience. The scientific schedule of the three-day meeting in 2016 featured 18 LMU delegates, among which academic staff and students from the LMU Faculty of Biology, Faculty for Chemistry and Pharmacy, and Medical Faculty, as well as the Helmholtz Zentrum München (HMGU).
Six plenary lectures were held as part of the already traditional meeting. The interdisciplinary topics varied from Development, Function, and Therapy of Neural Circuits (Paola Arlotta & Connie Cepko - HRVD, and Martin Biel - LMU & Hernán Lopez-Schier - HMGU) to Cell Differentiation (Alex Meissner - HRVD) and Genetics (Peleg Shahaf - LMU).
7th LMU-Harvard Young Scientists' Forum (LMU), June 28 - July 2, 2015
The meeting took place at the Center for Advanced Studies and the Campus Martinsried. The scientific program of the three-day meeting (June 29 - July 1) was complemented by a welcome dinner on June 28 and an excursion day on July 2.
6 faculty lectures were scheduled, in addition to 36 oral and/or poster contributions by advanced PhD students and postdocs nominated by Harvard and Munich faculty.
6th LMU-Harvard Young Scientists' Forum (Harvard), July 19 - 22, 2014
Four faculty members from Munich and three Harvard faculty members presented plenary lectures during the interdisciplinary meeting, covering topics from Chemical Biology (J.Hooker HRVD) and Proteomics (S.Lichtenthaler TUM) to Cell Biology (M.Subklewe LMU), the formation and function of Neural Circuits (B.Grothe LMU / S.Datta HRVD) and Behavioral Genetics (W.Enard LMU / C.Weitz HRVD).
5th LMU-Harvard Young Scientists' Forum (LMU), July 8 - 12, 2013
Lectures are open to everybody
- Website of the 2013 conference
- Conference booklet (including abstracts, pdf 1,3 MB)
- LMU press release
4th LMU-Harvard Young Scientists' Forum (Harvard University), July 7 - 10, 2012
- Website of the 2012 conference
- Conference booklet (including abstracts, 334 KB)
- LMU press release
3rd LMU-Harvard Young Scientists' Forum (LMU), June 27 - 30, 2011
- Conference program (Short version, pdf 3,5 MB)
- Conference booklet (including abstracts, pdf 1,4 MB)
- LMU press release on the 2011 conference
2nd LMU-Harvard Young Scientists' Forum (Harvard University), July 23 - 28, 2010
- Website of the 2010 conference
- Conference booklet (including abstracts, pdf 297 KB)
1st LMU-Harvard Young Scientists' Forum (LMU), June 21 - 24, 2009
- Conference booklet (including abstracts, pdf 2,2 MB)
- LMU press release on the 2009 conference
Downloads
- ysf_2021 (1 MByte)
- Schedule YSF 2023 July 19-21 (2 MByte)