This spring, to celebrate 25 years of discovery, the McGovern Institute is hosting a half-day symposium. The event will showcase the institute’s major achievements and explore the future direction of neuroscience. Highlights include a talk by Robert Langer and lightning talks from six distinguished McGovern alumni.

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Register: https://mcgovern.science/symposium2025

Symposium Schedule

Robert Desimone, Director, McGovern Institute, MIT, Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience
Welcoming Remarks

25th Anniversary Video 
A look at the past 25 years of the McGovern Institute

Robert Desimone, Director, McGovern Institute, MIT, Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience
The future of the McGovern Institute

Lore Harp McGovern, Co-Founder, McGovern Institute, MIT

Phillip A. Sharp, Founding Director, McGovern Institute; Institute Professor emeritus, MIT; Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, MIT

Robert S. Langer, Institute Professor, MIT; Board Member, McGovern Institute, MIT
An engineering road not taken: from research to clinical translation 

Young Alumni Talks, introductions from Ev Fedorenko, Investigator, McGovern Institute, MIT

• Xian Gao, Emugen Therapeutics LLC
  Developing and preclinical testing of gene therapy-based circuit modulation for brain disorders 
• Mark Howe, Boston University
  Landscape of neuromodulatory signals for learning, unlearning, and action
• Dmitriy Aronov, Columbia University/HHMI
  Using food-caching chickadees to study memory in the brain

Break, Atrium

• Jakob Voigts, HHMI Janelia Research Campus
  Neural dynamics underlying sequential reasoning in naturalistic behavior
• Anya Ivanova, Georgia Tech
  Dissociating language and thought in humans and in machines
• Jenelle Feather, Flatiron Institute
  Discriminating Representations with Principal Distortions

Panel Discussion for Young Alumni
The Road Taken: Life After McGovern

Nergis Mavalvala, Dean of School of Science, MIT 
Closing Remarks

Reception, Atrium