The ION-NIMH Joint Neuroscience Symposium was held on Nov. 17th and 18th, 2011 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Besthesda, Maryland, U.S.A. The symposium aimed to provide an opportunity for faculty, students and postdoctoral fellows from both institutions to present and discuss their latest research progress and to identify potential areas of future collaboration. Following a brief introduction by Dr. Tom Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), ION Director Prof. Mu-ming Poo gave an overview of neuroscience research in China. The symposium covered areas ranging from molecular and cellular to systems and cognitive neuroscience. ION faculty members Drs. Xu Zhang, Jia-wei Zhou, Xiang Yu, You-sheng Shu, Wei Wang, Xiao-hui Zhang and Hai-lan Hu gave talks. The symposium concluded with remarks from Dr. Insel and an opportunity to meet faculty members from ION and explore opportunities for neuroscience research in China.

During the second day, ION faculty members and graduate students visited NIMH, meeting faculty members and touring their core facilities including their functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) core, magnetoencephalography (MEG) core and clinical brain disorders branch (CBDB) laboratory.