Stanford University neuroscientist and Vallee Visiting Professor Carla Shatz, PhD, took her second VVP sabbatical last autumn at the Rockefeller University where she was hosted by Professor Mary Beth Hatten, PhD. The sabbatical was marked by a multitude of academic engagements and networking opportunities. On September 19, Dr Shatz delivered her Vallee Lecture – Saving the Synapse in Development and Alzheimer’s Disease – to a packed and lively auditorium. The dinner for senior Rockefeller neuroscience women faculty afterwards sparked many invigorating conversations over the coming weeks. 

Dr Shatz found one of the most rewarding and unexpected experiences of her time at the Rockefeller University was to speak in a series of "Mentoring" meetings with lab members organized by several faculty including Cori Bargmann, Shai Shaham and Vallee Scholar Priya Rajasethupathy. These meetings were wide ranging in content, involving research presentations, job talk rehearsals, career discussions, etc.

“Please accept my heartfelt thanks again for giving me this unique opportunity to recharge and rejuvenate, to share experiences, to mentor and to learn.” (Carla Shatz, PhD)

Regular events during the sabbatical included the Thursday Leon Levy neuroscience seminars as well as the Hatten lab meetings.  The design and interpretation of some exciting electrophysiological recordings made – for the first time ever – from human Purkinje neurons were discussed at the latter and may lead to future collaborations between the Shatz and Hatten labs.

Other events included a special seminar at Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute and a keynote lecture at Cold Spring Harbor Lab's symposium on neural development. Dr Shatz concluded her sabbatical with a celebratory dinner in honor of Torsten Wiesel's 100th birthday.  Dr Wiesel, MD, is President Emeritus and Vincent & Brooke Astor Professor Emeritus of the Rockefeller University and was a Vallee Visiting Professor himself in 2010.
 

Clockwise from left: Leslie Vosshall (who took the picture), Carla Shatz, Jue Chen, Cori Bargmann, Priya Rajasethupathy, Mary Beth Hatten, and Vanessa Ruta.

Main photo: Torsten Weisel and Carla Shatz (photo by Mususa Reyes Wiesel).