The Allen Institute today announced six new Next Generation Leaders, members of a unique neuroscience advisory panel made up of early-career researchers. Now in its seventh year, the Next Generation Leaders Council advises neuroscience research efforts at the Allen Institute, namely the Allen Institute for Brain Science and the MindScope Program.

Next Generation Leaders are selected each year through a competitive process that includes applications from around the world. The six Next Generation Leaders selected will each have a three-year term on the advisory council, for a total of 18 council members at any given time. As the program is focused on early-career neuroscience researchers, council members are postdoctoral fellows or newly appointed faculty members.

“These advisors are really the rising leaders in their fields. They bring fresh, invaluable perspectives to conversations about our research,” said Saskia de Vries, Ph.D., Assistant Investigator in the MindScope Program and co-chair of the Next Generation Leaders Committee along with Jim Berg, Ph.D., Senior Manager of Electrophysiology at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. “We’re thrilled that the stellar researchers of the 2020 cohort will be joining our community and we know our science will be better because of their contributions.”

The program also provides professional development for its members by offering training on how to serve as scientific advisors to another organization, roles typically not given to scientists until they are well advanced in their careers, and providing networking opportunities and peer support from Allen Institute researchers and other Next Generation Leaders.

“In the midst of all the changes and firsts that come with starting a lab, the opportunity to be part of the Next Generation Leaders program has had a transformative impact on the beginning of my career,” said Keith Hengen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Washington University in St. Louis and a member of the Next Generation Leaders Council since 2018. “Working so closely with the Allen Institute has enriched my scientific life and led to new friendships, collaborations and research directions. Ultimately, the council represents what a scientific community should be and can be, and I’m honored to carry these lessons forward at my university.”

The Next Generation Leaders Council will convene virtually at this year’s Showcase Symposium, Dec. 14 to Dec. 16, where they will present their own research and give feedback on research presented by early-career Allen Institute researchers. The members also attend one additional scientific advisory council meeting per year to provide feedback on specific research projects.

The newly appointed Next Generation Leaders are:

• Clinton Cave, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Middlebury College
• Lucas Cheadle, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
• Yvette Fisher, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School
• Fenna Krienen, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School
• Bianca Jones Marlin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Columbia University
• Cindy Poo, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Researcher at the Champalimaud Foundation

About the Allen Institute for Brain Science

The Allen Institute for Brain Science is a division of the Allen Institute (alleninstitute.org), an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit medical research organization, and is dedicated to accelerating the understanding of how the human brain works in health and disease. Using a big science approach, the Allen Institute generates useful public resources used by researchers and organizations around the globe, drives technological and analytical advances, and discovers fundamental brain properties through integration of experiments, modeling and theory. Launched in 2003 with a seed contribution from founder and philanthropist, the late Paul G. Allen, the Allen Institute is supported by a diversity of government, foundation and private funds to enable its projects. The Allen Institute for Brain Science’s data and tools are publicly available online at brain-map.org.