Visiting Lecture Team Program (VLTP)

Center for Cognitive Neurosciences and Semantics University of Latvia, Riga Latvia August 21-29, 2013

Local organization was undertaken by Dr. Jurgis Skilters (Associate Professor and Director, Center for Cognitive Neurosciences and Semantics, University of Latvia), while Dr. Signe Mezinska (Lecturer in the Faculty of Biology) established and implemented organizational details. The VLTP organizer was Professor U. J. McMahan (Professor of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, U.S.). The VLTP lecturers were: Professor John Nicholls (Department of Neurobiology, International School for Advanced Studies, SISSA, Trieste, Italy) Professor Shlomo Rotshenker (Department of Anatomy/Cell Biology, Hebrew University Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel) Professor U.J. McMahan, Professor of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, U.S. Professor Stephan Kroger (Institute of Physiology, University of Munich, Munich, Germany) Professor Mathew Mathew (Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics & Bioinformatics, National Center for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India)

There were 52 students representing 4 academic institutions in Latvia, 2 in Lithuania and 1 in Estonia. Most of the courses students were graduate students earning degrees in biophysics, biology, physics, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, pharmacology, and biomedical engineering. There were also 4 medical students, 3 advanced BS students and 2 postdoctoral fellows. The course extended over 9 days, comprising thirty-five 50 min lectures covering the following topics: principles of neural signaling, synaptic transmission and sensory transduction, biophysical and pharmacological properties of channels and receptors, structural, functional organization of the vertebrate visual system, synaptic plasticity, and cellular and molecular mechanisms in neural degeneration and regeneration.

The lecturers led a 1 hour discussion on international funding opportunities for training and research in neuroscience. Each lecturer also led a daily 1-hour small-group conference about material covered in the lectures and a 1.5-hour small group tutorial on how to give a 10-minute research talk at international meetings. Lecturers attended all lectures, discussions, tutorials and coffee breaks so there were 10+ lecturer-student contact hours per day. On the last day of the course eight of the students chose to give 10 min research talks that that they had developed in the tutorials. They were: Inese Cakstina (Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital), Dace Bertule (University of Latvia), Janis Kimsis (University of Latvia), Jevgenija Zeldahova (Vilnius University), Ingrida Antonova (Vilnius University), Elina Apine (University of Latvia), Gunda Zvigule (Rigas Stradin University), and Rolandas Stonkus (Vilnius University). Also on the last day of the course, Ulrika Beitnere, a faculty member of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Latvia, gave a 20 min presentation of the neuroscience research being conducted in the department.

According to Professor U. J. McMahan, Dr. Mezinskas recruitment of students and organization of the course were excellent in every way. She secured for use throughout the course a pleasant, fully equipped lecture hall and several auxiliary rooms for small group discussions in the Faculty of Biology building, and expertly handled the many day-today logistic problems of the lecturers and students that arose during the course. The students were well prepared in basic math and general science, spoke excellent English, were generally enthusiastic/optimistic, and were clearly eager to learn about basic neuroscience from the VLTPs unified neuro-anatomy, -biochemistry, -pharmacology, -physiology approach. The attendance was robust throughout the course, and the students questions following the lectures were thoug htful and imaginative. Latvia will become a member of the Eurozone in 2014, which will help impose modern standards on the university and will make available funds for its rejuvenation. Already, the EU has provided funds for the university to acquire certain scientific equipment and for Latvian students to take short technical courses in other European countries. It is a testament to the optimism of the Latvian students that many have begun taking advantage of these opportunities, and virtually all participants in the course indicated they plan to go abroad for at least part of their training for a career in academics. After the course, many commented on the fact that it was the first time they had had the opportunity to interact with professors in a profound way, and that it was inspiring to see, as presented in the course, how systematic, rigorous experimentation leads to the creation of previously unimagined and useful knowledge. It is also, no doubt, inspirational for students to see that they are no different from their VLTP professors in terms of mental dexterity, making such a level of academic achievement well within their own reach.