Mentoring > FKNE-PhD-thesis-prize

FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence
PhD Thesis Prize

FKNE
PhD Thesis
Prize

The FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence PhD Thesis Prize is awarded every second year at the FENS Forum and honors a young neuroscientist for his/her outstanding PhD thesis in any domain of neuroscience.

Personal prize money: 2.000 €

2024 PhD Thesis Prize
2022 PhD Thesis Prize
2020 PhD Thesis Prize
2018 PhD Thesis Prize
2016 PhD Thesis Prize

 

FKNE PhD Thesis Prize 2024

 

 

The Call for Applications closed on 15 February 2024

Results will be announced to the candidates within April 2024

Eligibility

  • the PhD must have been conducted in a FENS member country;
  • the candidate must have successfully defended the PhD thesis at the home institution;
  • at the time of the submission, no more than two years may have elapsed since the PhD was awarded;
  • the candidate must have at least one first-author manuscript published or accepted for publication. In case of a co-first authorship, the contribution of the applicant must be clearly stated on the publication, and can be further outlined in an accompanying document;
  • the candidate has to be available to attend the FENS Forum 2024 (Vienna, 25-29 June 2024)

The FKNE PhD Thesis Prize is sponsored by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET). 

Nomination/Application Procedure

Applicants may either be nominated by their PhD supervisor, or may self-nominate.

The nomination must include:

  • a letter of recommendation from the PhD supervisor, which should be sent directly to the Selection Committee (please check the application form); 
  • the CV of the applicant, including:
    • full citation of a first-author manuscript (published or accepted for publication);
    • full list of publications;
    • list of academic and professional awards, if applicable;
    • relevant professional experience, including teaching duties, if applicable;
  • an electronic copy of the PhD diploma;
  • an electronic copy of the PhD thesis document (English version);
  • an electronic copy of the first-author manuscript.

Application deadline: 15 February 2024, 5 PM CET

The FKNE PhD Prize is sponsored by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET).

PhD Prize Selection Committee 2024:

 

FKNE PhD Thesis Prize 2022

 

Dr. Célia Lacaux has been awarded the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence PhD Thesis Prize in 2022. Dr. Lacaux conducted her PhD project in the lab of Dr. Delphine Oudiette at the Sorbonne University Paris, France.

During her Ph.D., Célia chose to examine the impact of the sleep onset period on creativity. This period was over looked by researchers for decades, and the role of sleep in creativity hasn’t been strongly established. Célia’s first breakthrough was to uncover that patients with narcolepsy, who constantly oscillate between wakefulness and sleep, have an increased creative potential. These findings suggest that ‘hybrid’ states (at the border between wakefulness and sleep) offer a neurophysiological substrate for creativity. Célia then tested healthy subjects, and managed to elegantly confirm the link between this border state and creativity. Overall, her results show that critical cognitive processes occur during sleep onset. Celia’s findings are major and innovative. In the future, neuroscientists could target this period, to elucidate the mechanisms underlying creativity. Celia’s work has been published in influential scientific journals, and received considerable national and international media coverage. The selection committee was delighted to select Dr. Lacaux as the winner out of 64 applicants, many of which were also outstanding.

The prize, which consist of a special plaque and €2,000 Euros, have been awarded at the FENS Forum 2022 on the 9th July.

The FKNE PhD Thesis Prize honors a young neuroscientist for outstanding PhD thesis in any domain of neuroscience.

Download the Press Release

The FKNE PhD Prize is sponsored by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET).

PhD Prize Committee 2022:

 

FKNE PhD Prize 2020

Dr. Lisa Traunmüller has been awarded the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence PhD Thesis Prize. She conducted her PhD project in the lab of Dr. Peter Scheiffele at Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland and addressed a fundamental question in neurobiology: What are the mechanisms that create different, highly specific types of synapses? Her work uncovered an RNA-binding protein which activates a highly specific alternative splicing program to control the properties of glutamatergic synapses.  

 

FKNE PhD Thesis Prize 2020

Dr. Lisa Traunmüller  

UNIBAS Switzerland                                             

 

 

 

 

She also contributed to work that uncovers how a switch in alternative splicing shapes neurexin repertoires in principal neurons versus interneurons of the hippocampus. Taken together, her work identified the cell type-specific transcript diversification by alternative splicing as a novel and central mechanism for the functional specification of neuronal cell types and circuits. Dr. Traunmüller’s work was published in influential journals and is highly recognised for having a strong impact on the field of neuronal circuit assembly and synapse formation. Therefore, the jury was delighted to select Dr. Traunmüller as the winner out of 56 applicants, many of which were also outstanding.

  • Download the Press Release
  • Watch here the video featuring the Winner of the FKNE PhD Thesis Prize 2020

The FKNE PhD Prize is sponsored by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET).

FKNE PhD Thesis Prize Committee 2020:

PhD Thesis Prize 2018

Dr. Arseny Finkelstein has been awarded the inaugural FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence PhD Thesis Prize in 2018.

Dr. Finkelstein conducted his PhD project in the lab of Dr. Nachum Ulanovsky at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. With meticulous work, he discovered and quantitatively characterized 3D head direction cells in the freely moving bats using his own custom developed tracking device. This system can be considered a 3D compass in the brain. Dr. Finkelstein and colleagues published these results in Nature in 2015. Then, he went on to show that certain neurons of the bat hippocampus encode the directions and the proximity of spatial goals, potentially forming the basis of goal-directed navigation, which work resulted in a shared first author publication in Science. These results are groundbreaking, because navigation is traditionally studied only in two dimensions and extending it to the full space required the development of novel technology applied to an uncommon model organism. This convinced the jury to select Dr. Finkelstein as the winner of 54 entries, which were often also of outstanding quality. Dr. Finkelstein continues his work at Janelia Research Campus, HHMI, USA with Dr. Karel Svoboda.

The prize, which consist of a special plaque and €2,000 Euros, have been awarded at the FENS Forum 2018 on the 9th July.

Download the Press Release

The FKNE PhD Prize is sponsored by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training  (CHET).   

FKNE PhD Thesis Prize Committee 2018:

FKNE PhD Thesis Prize 2016

Dr. Linda Katona (University of Oxford) has been awarded the inaugural FENS Kavli Network of Excellence PhD Thesis Prize in 2016.

The thesis published by Dr. Katona – originally from Romania, who graduated from the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford – is a masterpiece for its depth, the originality of the experimental approach employed, as well as for the new insights obtained by her results. During her thesis conducted under the joint supervision of Professors Peter Somogyi (University of Oxford) and Thomas Klausberger (University of Vienna), Dr. Katona physiologically and molecularly characterized in depth the role of different types of GABAergic interneurons in the hippocampus of freely moving rats during distinct oscillatory states. Her results have not only been obtained with state-of-the-art techniques, but will also help to better understand rhythmic network functions during memory processing. Her work led to several publications in top neuroscientific journals and culminated with a first author paper in Neuron. On top of that, Dr. Katona’s thesis is excellently structured, flawlessly written and well illustrated, and convinced the jury to select her as the winner of over 45 other entries, which were often also of outstanding quality. Dr. Katona is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford and continuous to delve into the mysteries of brain rhythmicity underlying different memory systems.

The prizes, which consist of a special plaque and €2,000 Euros each, were awarded at the FENS Forum 2016 on the 4th July.

Download the Press Release

The FKNE Mentoring Prize is sponsored by the FENS Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET).    

FKNE PhD Thesis Prize Committee 2016: