"Dear Colleagues and Friends,

I am writing this letter on behalf of SINS, the Italian Society of Neuroscience. SINS has chosen Catania as the next site to hold its 2012 Congress on April 19-22. I accepted this burden with the spirit that the congress should be inspired to the guidelines of the Society and, more in general, to those originating from the long lasting tradition of excellence of Italian Neuroscience. I wish to thank the President, the Secretary and the Steering Committee of SINS to give me such a prestigious opportunity. I also wish to thank those Colleagues of the Local Scientific Committee who accepted to follow with me the evolution of the activities for the organization of the Congress.

Commitment to excellence is considered by SINS as the very first duty. In fact, all the proposals related to Symposia, Plenary lectures, Workshops and Posters, will be selected with the precise aim to leave a long lasting imprinting for Participants and to represent a starting reference point for future activities of Neuroscience in Italy and beyond.

Interactions with Scientists from abroad, the exchange of ideas and the birth of new collaborations have always been an objective of SINS, expecially when related to groups of Scientist who contributed to Neuroscience with excellent work and relevant discoveries. With this concept in mind, SINS tightened an agreement with the Israel Society for Neuroscience to organize the Joint Meeting of the two Societies within the occasion of the SINS congress in Catania.

The Congress will be dedicated to young Researchers, who are a huge reservoir of energy for the heavy tasks they are called to accomplish during their research work, representing a garden of novel ideas for discovery of new technologies and mechanisms. Biomedical Neuroscience are urged to propose alternative solutions for a number of problems affecting people’s health, and all disciplines related to Neuroscience greatly contribute to help attaining significant results. Thus, long experienced Scientists are called to promote the growth and the contribution of young generations to the tasks of Neuroscience. For the above reasons, the Organizing Committee will devote special attention to initiatives dedicated to young people in order to lighten, for that it is in our possibilities, their burden to participate to the congress.

Finally, the Congress will be hosted by the monumental site of the Benedictine Convent, a pearl of the Sicilian baroque with breathtaking views and intimate corners, and for centuries the pivot site of Catania’s cultural activities, which will for sure contribute to a memorable meeting.

Indeed, I feel confident that I will see many of You in Catania. In the meanwhile, let me tell you a warm

Arrivederci!

Renato Bernardini
Chairperson, SINS 2012"

 

In the spotlight
“Performing and Enjoying Art: some of the Many Reasons Why”
Lecture by C. Di Benedetto - April 20th, 7:30 PM, room "Refettorio Grande"

The conversation will aim at Art as an individual and a collective phenomenon of the human creativity, hidden or expressed through the brain. And the soul. Some elements of the universal artistic knowledge and some less known aspects of our social and artistic life will be taken in consideration, seen from a particular - and maybe unexpected - point of view: the bull of Altamira and Picasso’s Guernica, the byke-Tour-de-France and Michelangelo’s Sixtine Chapel, the Tribune of the Uffizi and the gentlemen at the Grand Tour, the instinctive attraction for a music and the sudden rational refuse of it, the divine inspiration given by a landscape and the possible ways of being disturbed right in the middle of our highest feelings and thoughts…