FENS and EJN announce the recipients of the FENS EJN Young Investigator Prize 2022

19 August 2021

FENS News, Society & Partner News

The Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and the European Journal of Neuroscience (EJN), in partnership with its publisher Wiley, are pleased to announce the recipients of the FENS EJN Young Investigator Prize 2022:

• Mackenzie Mathis (CH)
• Sara Mederos (UK)
• Nicolas Renier (FR)
• Giacomo Valle (CH)

The 2022 FENS EJN Young Investigator Award is shared between these four talented researchers, who receive a prize for their scientific contributions to neuroscience and will give a lecture at the FENS Forum 2022.

“The EJN Young Investigator Prize is a recognition of the neuroscience community, explained FENS President Jean-Antoine Girault. It highlights the excellent work done by researchers at an early stage of their career and makes it visible to a broad audience”.“This Prize, adds John Foxe, Editor-in-Chief of EJN, is a way for the European Journal of Neuroscience, together with its society FENS, to recognise outstanding work done by early career researchers who are leading the way in a field”.

The FENS EJN Young Investigator Prize is sponsored by Wiley (publisher of EJN). It is awarded every second year to an independent early career researcher in recognition of their outstanding scientific contributions to any area of neuroscience.

	Professor Mackenzie Mathis (CH) is the Bertarelli Foundation Chair of Integrative Neuroscience and an Assistant Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL). After receiving her PhD at Harvard University in 2017, she was awarded the prestigious Rowland Fellowship at Harvard to start her own independent laboratory (2017-2020). Prof. Mathis’ work focuses on mechanisms underlying adaptive behaviour in intelligent systems combining machine learning, computer vision and experimental work in rodents. Her research may lead to new avenues in therapeutic research for neurological disease.
	Dr Sara Mederos (UK) is a postdoctoral Fellow at The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour in London, United Kingdom. Through her research, Mederos has explored the complex relationships established by neurons and astrocytes in different scenarios. Her research had significantly contributed to revealing the complexity and richness of the communication between astrocytes, excitatory and inhibitory neurons for brain function. At the Hofer Lab, she is currently focused on the study of neuronal codification of instinctive reactions essential for animals’ survival, mainly how inputs to subcortical structures are shaped by experience and learning and ensure the storage of new information which is constantly adapting to unknown environmental conditions.
	Dr Nicolas Renier started his own laboratory in 2017 at the Paris Brain Institute in Paris, where he is developing a research programme to understand the mechanisms and physiological impact of cerebral plasticity during development and in adult life. After finishing his doctoral training at the Vision Institute in Paris, Dr Renier moved to the laboratory of Marc Tessier-Lavigne in 2012 at the Rockefeller University in New York City (US) where he co-developed methods to map the brain and other organs in 3D using tissue clearing and light-sheet microscopy.
	Dr Giacomo Valle (CH) is a postdoctoral researcher at the NeuroEngineering Laboratory, ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He aims to close the gap between humans and machines through his research by studying the connection between the human nervous system and bionic limbs. Dr Valle combines his knowledge of neuroscience, medicine and engineering to create somatosensory neural prostheses to restore sensory-motor functions.