Established in 1947 to celebrate neuroanatomy and now promotes all of neuroscience.
Cajal Club, Society for Neuroscience 2025
Board of Directors Meeting
Cajal Club Social
CAJAL CLUB | PAST MEETINGS | PAGE 14
Responsive Photo Folders and Album Essays Table of Contents, Pages 1-14, below:
Cajal Club, Society for Neuroscience 2025
Board of Directors Meeting |Cajal Club Social
Cajal Club at SfN San Diego 2025
On Sunday, November 16, 2025 from 6:30 pm-8:30 pm the Cajal Club held its annual Social at the Salt & Whiskey Bar at the Horton Grand Hotel in downtown San Diego. Paola Arlotta opened the event with welcoming remarks followed by Larry Swanson’s presentation of the history of the Cajal Club. After Larry’s talk, Paola outlined the current activities of the club as well as past and present contributions of the Club to the scientific community.
The guest speaker of the event was April Pruitt, Yale University, School of Medicine. Her presentation entitled “Mind/Matter: The Neuroscience of Perception, Attention, & Memory” was given in conjunction with an exhibit at the Yale Peabody Museum. She primarily focused on Santiago Ramón y Cajal in her lecture, however the "heart" of the Peabody exhibition consisted of the original beautiful drawings as well as the scientific equipment of two pioneers in the field of modern neuroscience, Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Both men worked in the late 19th century to study the same area of the brain but they developed two vastly different models of the neurons: Golgi theorized neuroanatomy to be reticular and Cajal's was Cell theory for neuroanatomy which he published in the Neuron Doctrine. Santiago Ramón y Cajal described the neurons of the brain as “mysterious butterflies of the soul, whose wingbeats might one day illuminate the secrets of the mind.”
A central part of the evening was the announcement of the winners of the Club’s 2025 awards for outstanding achievement in neuroscience. The 2025 Palay Award was given to Drs. Hongkui Zeng and Ed Lein by Dr. Suzana Herculano-Houzel. The 2025 Krieg Cortical Kudos Awards, presented by Dr. Paola Arlotta, were given to Dr. Hong-Wei Dong for the Krieg Cortical Discoverer Award, Dr. Katherine Matho for the Krieg Cortical Explorer Award, and to Zachary Zeisler for the Krieg Cortical Scholar Award. Dr. Arnold Kriegstein received the 2025 Cowan Award, presented by Dr. Suzana Herculano-Houzel, and Dr. Carmen Cavada received the Brain Structure & Function Editor’s Choice Award for “Immunohistochemical field parcellation of the human hippocampus along its antero-posterior axis.” Dr. Joel C. Geerling was also recognized as the inaugural recipient of the 2025 C.L. Herrick Award.
A highlight of the evening was the Club’s work with the International Brain Bee and the announcement that The 2025 Cajal Club Neural Progenitor Award has been given to Anastasia Lyschenko by Dr. Carol Mason are two recent examples. The full list of winners and finalists for the International Brain Bee World Championship has also been published by The Social. The World Champion winners include Claire Zhou, United States, first place; Emma Rees, Canada, second place; Tiffany Yi, Australia, third place; and finalists included Anastasia Lyschenko, Ukraine and Mahsa Alizadeh, Iran. Anastasiia Lysenko, Ukraine, received the inaugural Cajal Club Neural Progenitor Award. The prize includes US $500 and a formal certificate that recognized her exceptional performance and advanced knowledge of the cerebral cortex.
The Cajal Club held its annual Board of Directors and Business Meeting on November 15, 2025 at the Horton Grand Hotel from 11:05 a.m. to 1:50 p.m. The Board reviewed several current initiatives, awarded several people, discussed the Club’s partnerships, went through the contents of Wendell Krieg’s archives, took a tour of the Club’s website, reviewed the current membership, and began to explore funding sources for future scientific meetings. The Club’s annual Business Meeting and subsequent social gathering the next day highlighted two key aspects of the Club’s continued mission to honor the contributions of Santiago Ramón y Cajal to science. The meetings and social served to disseminate information about current scientific endeavors, continued the Club’s tradition of peer mentoring, and insured the Club’s historical memory. The Club supported the scientific meetings of its members, served as a conduit for early-career researchers, and tried to improve the Club’s public image.
View the photo essay documenting Cajal Club activities during the 2025 SfN Conference below, and access the indexed photo folder here.
 Patrick Hof and Larry Swanson at the 2025 Cajal Club Social. |  Patrick Hof, Larry Swanson, and Dr. Hong-Wei Dong recipient of the 2025 Krieg Cortical Discoverer Award. |  Pasko Rakic and Patrick Hof. |  Carol Mason presents the International Brain Bee awards. |
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 Patrick Hof, Zachary Zeisler and Suzana Herculano-Houzel. |  The Brain Structure & Function Editor’s Choice Award. |  Paola Arlotta outlining the current activities of the club as well as past and present contributions of the Club to the scientific community. |  Larry Swanson and Hong-Wei Dong. |
 April Pruitt, Carol Mason, Paola Arlotta, and Linda Richards. |  Dawn Hunter drawing Pasko Rakic, Cajal Club Social, 2025. |  Portrait of Pasko Rakic, pen and ink on paper, 11" x 14" by artist, Dawn Hunter. |  Dawn Hunter and Pasko Rakic with the portrait of Pasko. |
 Cajal Club Social Awards presentation. |  Suzana Herculano-Houzel and Joel C. Geerling recipient of the 2025 C.L. Herrick Award. |  Suzana Herculano-Houzel and Arnold Kriegstein recipient of the 2025 Cowan Award |  Carmen Cavada Carmen Cavada recipient of the Brain Structure & Function Editor’s Choice Award for “Immunohistochemical field parcellation of the human hippocampus along its antero-posterior axis” with Laszlo Zaborszky. |
 Patrick Hof, Paola Arlotta, and Zachary Zeisler. |  Patrick Hof, Paola Arlotta, and Zachary Zeisler. |  Paola Arlotta and Katherine Matho recipient of the 2025 Krieg Cortical Explorer Award. |  Dawn Huntre, Paola Arlotta, and Hong-Wei Dong. |
 Larry Swanson. |  The 2025 Palay Award was given to Drs. Hongkui Zeng and Ed Lein by Dr. Suzana Herculano-Houzel (middle). |  Paola Arlotta and April Pruitt. |  Pasko Rakic and Linda Richards. |
 Paola Arlotta and Pasko Rakic. |  Patrick Hof, Lee A. Shapiro and Arnold Kriegstein. |  April Pruitt, Carol Mason, Paola Arlotta, and Linda Richards. |  Ed Lein and Charles Ribak. |
 Charles Ribak toasting Pasko Rakic. |  April Pruitt, Carol Mason, Patrick Hof and Charles Ribak. |  Nenad Šestan and Pasko Rakic. |  Nenad Šestan and Pasko Rakic. |
 Charles Ribak Cajal Club Board of Directors meeting. |  Linda Richards and Paola Arlotta Cajal Club Board of Directors meeting. |  Dawn Hunter with Katherine Matho's certificate Cajal Club Board of Directors meeting. |  Dr. Hong-Wei Dong's 2025 Krieg Cortical Discoverer Award Certificate. |
 Debby Silver and Corey Harwell Cajal Club Board of Directors meeting. |  Charles Ribak and Larry Swanson Cajal Club Board of Directors meeting. |  Pasko Rakic and John Rubenstien Cajal Club Board of Directors meeting. |  Caricatures drawn by Dawn Hunter at the Cajal Club Board of Directors meeting. |
 Linda Richards, Paola Arlotta and Dawn Hunter Cajal Club Board of Directors meeting. |