Conference: 2025 Neuroethology: Behavior, Evolution and Neurobiology GRC and GRS June 29-July 4, 2025, at Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco in Lucca Italy.

About This Grant

The Neuroethology Gordon Research Conference brings together 200 scientists at multiple career stages and from various training disciplines to discuss how studying different animal behaviors reveals shared mechanisms of neural control. This fundamental research furthers basic biological knowledge with positive implications for technology and health. The meeting fills an unusual niche because it includes research on a range of animals, in natural and lab environments, assayed by a broad range of experimental approaches. This makes it an idea-generating engine for new research directions and collaborations. Expert speakers are invited but most attendees come from an open application process. Early career scientists are welcomed into a larger community with sustained time for discussion during the talks, poster sessions, and shared meals. NSF support is critical to maximize attendance. While there are many venues to share scientific progress, The Neuroethology Gordon Conference emphasizes unpublished research and cross-disciplinary approaches. Developmental biologists, comparative anatomists, animal behaviorists, evolutionary geneticists, and molecular biologists have a lot to share with each other if they can make the time to communicate. This meeting is specifically designed to foster new scientific ideas and directions by bringing together representatives of several intellectual lineages in an environment that facilitates the sustained discussions needed to find common ground. Expert speakers, both early career and established investigators, are invited, while posters are presented by applicants. The meeting was established in 1999 and this year’s focus is on current expression of influential ideas from the history of ethology. Topics include Krogh’s Principle, Extended Phenotypes, and Tinbergen’s Questions, along with sessions on specialized sensors, adaptations to extreme environments, and the cognitive capacities of invertebrates. This meeting is critical for the neuroethology community to flourish, maximizing its potential for innovation and discovery. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.