ALBA Network

🧠 Breaking Down the Ivory Tower: ALBA Disability & Accessibility Annual Webinar - Episode 8

Join us for this year's #InternationalDayofPersonsWithDisabilities with our annual webinar! Our 2026 webinar features Dr. Brennan Terhune-Cotter, a Newton Research Fellow at UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (UK).

🗣"Seeing the Neurobiology of Language through a Deaf Lens"

Dr Terhune-Cotter will explore how Deaf insights and lived experiences offer new perspectives on cognitive neuroscience, and what they mean in practice for how researchers study the brain, particularly where sign language and spoken language converge and diverge.

📍Zoom (Registration Required)

📆 Thursday, 3 December 2026 (International Day of Persons with Disabilities)

⏰ 9:00 EST / 15:00 CEST

👉 Info & registration can be found using this link: alba.network/ivorytowerseri…

@FENSorg @SfNtweets @IBROorg @UCL_ICN

ALBA Network Social: A Global Gathering Celebrating Inclusion, Intersectionality and Community at #Neuroscience2026! 🧠✨

ALBA is hosting an evening of networking, connection, and community in Washington D.C. for the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) Annual Meeting 2026.

Whether you are a longtime member of the ALBA community or joining us for the first time, our social event is open to all Neuroscience 2026 attendees.

Drop in, say hello, and connect with your community in DC!

📆 Monday, 16 November 2026

⏰ 19:00 – 21:00 EST

📍 Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Hall E – NNE Space #7

😋Nibbles and light refreshments are available

🔗 Learn more: alba.network/celebrating-in…

@SfNtweets @FENSorg @IBROorg

🌏 Diversity Week at ALBA, Day 5: Ambassadors who connect us to the wider world

Meet Dr Jacque Pak Kan Ip, Assistant Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and ALBA Ambassador.

As a member of ALBA’s Global Diversity Working Group and IBRO Early Career Committee representative to ALBA, Jacque has helped shape ALBA-IBRO activities over the years. He has chaired webinars exploring topics from gender equity in brain research across East & Southeast Asia to socioeconomic inequalities in neuroscience and facilitated discussions at our #FENS2024 workshop on overcoming impostor phenomenon. This year, as member of the APSN-FAONS-HKSN 2026 local organising committee, he helped bring ALBA to the conference in Hong Kong, our first live session in the region.

ALBA can only advance equity when the communities it serves actively help shape its work. Ambassadors like Jacque help foster these connections, extending the network’s reach within their own scientific communities and around the world.

Find out about becoming an ALBA Ambassador, explore our activities and join the network for free: alba.network/getinvolved

That's a wrap on this year's Diversity Week!

Five people, five different ways of building equity in brain sciences. Diversity of contribution means every role matters, and there's a place for you in it too. 💜

@FENSorg @IBROorg @SfNtweets @CUHKofficial

🌍 Diversity Week at ALBA, Day 4: Making a global mission local

Meet Ana Silva, Professor at the Universidad de la República, Uruguay, and one of ALBA’s longest-standing contributors.

Ana has supported ALBA since its founding, first as a Board member and now as an ALBA Advisor. She helped build data through two ALBA webinars on the challenges facing neuroscientists in Latin America, and hosted ALBA’s session on an inclusive future for neuroscience in the region at #FALAN2026. She has also helped redefine the barriers that leave scientists underrepresented, and as a committed mentor herself, helps ALBA understand what existing mentoring programmes miss.

Scientists don't face the same hurdles everywhere: funding, language, and visibility look very different outside Europe. Ana’s work adapts ALBA’s mission to local context, and makes sure local perspectives shape it in return.

👉 Interested in leading ALBA activities in your region? Reach out to info@alba.network

📝Read more: alba.network/webinarseries-… | alba.network/FALAN2026-event

@NatureNeuro @_TheTransmitter @Udelaruy @NeuroFALAN @FENSorg @IBROorg @SfNtweets @EJNeuroscience

Day 3 of ALBA’s ‘Diversity of Contribution’ series: from evidence to action 🧠🏳️‍🌈

Meet Dr Dori Grijseels, postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior – Caesar, Germany, and Chair of the Gender & Sexual Diversity Working Group.

Dori’s contribution spans research, practical guidance and community building. As Chair, they led the group’s 2026 survey of 400+ LGBTQIA+ neuroscientists worldwide, examining how legislation and institutional climates shape careers and wellbeing. They have also co-authored practical guidance on inclusive data collection and analysis, and spoken on LGBTQIA+ mental health, inclusive lab cultures and power dynamics – helping make neuroscience a more inclusive field.

For LGBTQIA+ scientists, who can feel isolated in a field where they are still underrepresented, visibility and peer support matters. Dori backs advocacy with evidence, practical tools and a public voice, and it is this representation that helps the next generation see a place for themselves in brain sciences.

👥 Join the community: brainbow-group.slack.com/join/shared_in… 📚

Explore Dori's work: alba.network/features | alba.network/lgbtqia-mental…

@FENSorg @IBROorg @SfNtweets @MPINB_caesar