The Alba Diversity Podcast The ALBA Network

The ALBA-IBRO Podcast Miniseries is a collection of three episodes designed to provide a broader audience with exclusive insights into the topics covered at ALBA-IBRO diversity and inclusion events held during three international conferences in 2023.
For our third and final episode, we're coming to you from the 2023 Society for Neuroscience Meeting held in Washington, D.C., where ALBA and IBRO hosted an evening social about deconstructing colonial and historical biases in neuroscience. Dr Bashir is speaking with two researchers today about their insights on how historical biases have influenced our understanding of the brain and affect diversity and inclusion in research and academia today. The researchers are Dr Tiffany Younger from Columbia University, and Dr Melissa Perreault from the University of Guelph.

The ALBA-IBRO Podcast Miniseries is a collection of three episodes designed to provide a broader audience with exclusive insights into the topics covered at ALBA-IBRO diversity and inclusion events held during three international conferences in 2023.
For the second episode, we are at the IBRO World Congress 2023 on 9-13 September in Granada, Spain. The ALBA Network and the IBRO Early Career Committee partnered to facilitate a wide-ranging discussion of what neuroscientists can do as a community to build research capacity in the Global South, and how this increase in local capacities for research and innovation can, in the broader picture, bring benefits to us all. 
Dr Asma Bashir is speaking with the chairs and panelists of this event: Dr Miguel Maravall (University of Sussex, UK), Dr Isabel del Pino (Instituto de Neurociencias CSIC-UMH, Spain), Dr Mahmoud Bukar Maina (University of Sussex, UK / Yobe State University, Nigeria), Dr Pike-See Cheah (Universiti Putri Malaysia, Malaysia), Dr Jo Havemann (CEO of Access 2 Perspectives, Germany) and Dr Francisco Parada (Universidad Diego Portales, Chile). They share initiatives and success stories that allowed for capacity building in scientific research in diverse settings across the globe.
More information on this miniseries here: https://www.alba.network/alba-ibro-podcast-miniseries
This miniseries is organised with the support of the International Brain Research Organization, a founding partner of the ALBA Network.

Dr Bashir is speaking with three researchers located on the African continent about the role of mentoring in career advancement and capacity development in Africa: Dr Sara Elfarrash (EG), Dr Royhaan Folarin (NG) and Dr Lihle Qulu (SA).

Dr. Maryam Ziaei received her PhD in Neuroscience from School of Psychology, the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia. Following completion of her postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre for Advanced Imaging, UQ, she joined Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Norway to establish her own research group. She is currently an associate professor, and her primary focus is to understand neurocognitive mechanisms underlying social and emotional processing in aging.
She tells us about her journey in neuroscience as a practicing Muslim and about her unique experiences as an immigrant scientist in Australia.
More information:
Personal website: www.maryamzi.com
Lab website: https://www.ntnu.edu/kavli/ziaei-group
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryam-ziaei-ph-d-24ba294a/
Twitter handle: @maryamziae
Interviewed and edited by Shruti Muralidhar, Audio content editing by Abhishek Chari, Music from Lee Rosevere. Other projects by Shruti Muralidhar: @polybiotique, BiasWatchIndia, IndSciComm.

Dr. Suraj Honnuraiah is a postdoctoral scientist in the laboratory of Prof. Greg Stuart at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. He grew up in India and did his Masters in Neuroinformatics with Prof. Rodney Douglas at the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland.
 
A tragic accident in childhood led to his friend losing his vision at an early age. Suraj talks about how he used this incident as his motivation to study and work in vision neuroscience and neuroinformatics for his PhD. He also talks to us about some subtle and covert forms of discrimination that he has faced and emphasizes the importance of having a diverse and inclusive working environment.
 
Currently, he is studying the cellular and circuit mechanisms of binocular visual information processing in rodent visual cortex using optogenetics and electrophysiological techniques.
Links:
Honnuraiah’s ANU page
Honnuraiah’s Loop profile
Honnuraiah’s work on ResearchGate
Audio-transcription of the episode
Interviewed and edited by Shruti Muralidhar, Audio content editing by Abhishek Chari, Music from Lee Rosevere. Other projects by Shruti Muralidhar: @polybiotique, BiasWatchIndia, IndSciComm.

Dr. Dan Ohtan Wang is a neuroscientist trained in Japan and US. Her work connects genetic information to cognitive brain functions through the regulation of RNA. Her work centers on live-cell imaging techniques in visualizing RNA molecules and characterizing the diversity of RNA molecules at neuronal synapses. Currently, she is leading a team to study "Neuroepitranscriptomics" at RIKEN BDR, to decipher RNA information in the context of cognitive development and decline, and harness RNA biology for mental health.
She talks to us about her multiple identities as a woman neuroscientist - originally from China, trained in the US and working in Japan. She also gives us insights into the value of focus and resilience in science.
More information:
Laboratory for Neuroepitranscriptomics
The Government of Japan - Diversity
Asian-Pacific Society for Neuroschemistry
RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR)
Rikejo: Japan's Pioneering Women in Science
Audio-transcription of the episode
Interviewed and edited by Shruti Muralidhar, Audio content editing by Abhishek Chari, Music from Lee Rosevere. Other projects by Shruti Muralidhar: @polybiotique, BiasWatchIndia, IndSciComm.