On behalf of the Board of Directors, welcome to VSS 2024!
We have a packed schedule this year with over 1,200 abstracts, 6 symposia and a wide assortment of satellite and workshop events.
VSS continues to provide travel awards for our students that are most in need, including awards from our NIH R13 grant, the Elsevier/Vision Research International Travel Award, and the Yellott Award. Many thanks to the generous VSS members that contributed to the new member-supported Undergraduate Travel Award.
Attending conferences can be particularly difficult for young families with small children. Our June survey showed that there is strong support for VSS to help offset childcare costs. In response, VSS provided Caregiver Grants to applicants to help cover childcare costs. We hope to continue this program in future years.
New this year is the Community Table, which you will find near the registration desk, maintained by the Student-Postdoc Advisory Committee (SPC) along with Females of Vision et al. (FoVea), the Spark Society, and Visibility, a gathering of LGBTQ+ Vision Scientists and Friends. At the Community Table you can learn about the satellite and workshop events that make VSS a welcoming and inclusive society. You can also learn about the new Discord channels that the SPC has organized to facilitate sharing accommodations, transportation, dinners, and childcare.
By popular demand, is providing a smartphone app for this year’s meeting where you will be able to access the meeting schedule and generate your personal schedule of events and abstracts to visit.
Congratulations to our three award winners! This year’s Davida Teller Award goes to Isabel Gauthier, the recipient of the Elsevier/VSS Young Investigator Award is Michael Cohen, and the Ken Nakayama Medal for Excellence in Vision Science goes to Randolph Blake. We look forward to their presentations at the Awards Session on Monday at 12:30 pm.
This year’s Keynote Lecture will be given by Dr. Dora Biro from the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester. Her Saturday evening lecture on the way birds use their unique visual systems to work as a group for directional navigation should have something for everyone.
Come for the science, stay for the fun. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Demo Night, where the organizers are bringing back some old favorites, like the Beuchet Chair! And of course, you won’t want to miss Club Vision where you can appreciate why we’re excellent scientists.
We appreciate that along with everything else, travel and conference costs have been rising faster than most of our science budgets and salaries. For those who want to know more about the exciting financial spreadsheets behind VSS, please come to the Business Meeting on Tuesday at 12:15 pm. Also at the business meeting we will discuss the latest survey results and the viability of holding VSS at alternate locations.
As always, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Meeting Perfect’s Shauney, Shawna, Jeff, and Lynn for their tireless year-round work. We would also like to thank our sponsors and exhibitors, and the many committees that keep this unique conference running. Finally, thank you all for your passion and support. The survey responses remind us how much you care for VSS as your annual meeting. As the airlines say, we know you have a choice. We greatly appreciate you devoting your limited resources to support this amazing and special Society.
We look forward to seeing you in May!
Geoff Boynton
President, VSS Board of Directors, 2024