VAS-COG 2007 - Summary of Student Activities

Students played an active role in the 2007 Vas-Cog Congress. They were well represented in the author lists of both the poster section and oral presentations.

The students held two formal meetings. At the first of these, the outgoing Student Committee members provided an update on their activities over the past two years.

 Alida Gouw, the program committee representative, reported that as a whole the student group had generated a number of ideas about the content and structure of the conference, and these were fed back to the conference planning committee.

Stephen Correia, the Scientific Representative, reported that he was included as an abstract reviewer. He also provided input into the scientific program and assisted with editing printed conference material. Anne Börjesson-Hanson, the Chairperson, reported that she had attended the Vas-Cog Executive Committee meetings throughout the period, voicing the views of the student group.

During the second meeting, a new student committee was elected:

• Skye McLennan (Australia): Chairperson
  skye.mclennan@adelaide.edu.au
   
• George Thomas (USA): Scientific Committee Representative
  gthomas1@kumc.edu
   
• Salka Staekenborg (Netherlands): Program Committee Representative
  s.staekenborg@vumc.nl
   

Several other students volunteered to work with the 2007-09 Student Committee in the following roles:

• Stephanie Bombois (France) and Simona Sacuiu (Sweeden): Secretary s-bombois@chru-lille.fr/ stephanie.bombois@voila.fr, Simona.Sacuiu@neuro.gu.se
   
• Adriane Mayda (USA): Webmaster for the student site
  abvotaw@ucdavis.edu
   
• Kasia Gustwa (Poland): Co-ordinator of volunteers in 2009/Singapore kasiagu@yahoo.ca
   

During the week of the conference, the students met in smaller groups for several less formal events including dinners at the local Riverwalk restaurants. The hotel swimming pool was also a popular meeting place! These occasions provided the opportunity for students from different countries and different scientific disciplines to chat about their research and share their stories and experiences.

Most students would agree that it was a very successful conference. The presentations dealt with motivating topics. The informal atmosphere provided the opportunity meet colleagues and senior researchers and led to lively discussions.

The student group now has 25 active members. We welcome other students who are researching a topic related to cognitive impairment and vascular disease to make contact with the group. We are particularly interested to hear from students from Asian regions, as this group of countries is not currently represented in the Student Group. However, every student is very welcome, since, as Vladimir Hachinsky said in his concluding comments to the Vas-Cog assembly, students play an important role in the research field and in the Vas-Cog.