Dear Neuroscientists, Saludos cordiales! It is with great pleasure that I announce the 17th Annual Puerto Rico Neuroscience Conference, which will be held at the College of Natural Sciences in the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras Campus on Saturday, December 6th, 2008. This year we have an excellent group of invited speakers. First, we are delighted that our plenary lecturer for the Jose del Castillo Lecture Series will be Dr. Eve Marder, President of the Society for Neuroscience. In addition to Dr. Marder, our Conference will also be hosting other distinguished speakers, among them: Dr. Robert Brownstone, Dalhousie University, Halifax Canada Dr. Fred Helmstetter, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Dr. Eric Newman, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Please note that prior to the activity on Saturday, both the organizing committee and our Chancellor Dr. Gladys Escalona de Motta will host a reception for invited guests and the attendants of the Conference on Friday, December 5th, 2008 around 6:30 PM at the official residence of the señora Rectora at our Rio Piedras Campus. As part of the organization and the preparation of the abstract book, I would like to ask that those planning to present a poster in our Conference to send me the abstracts no later than Friday October 31, 2008. Please, advice your students, postdoctoral fellows, technicians, and all of those concerned to submit the abstract on time to my email address: cmalvlar@caribe.net As the activity approaches, I will be providing you with more pertinent information and the tentative agenda of the meeting. I will also appreciate if you could forward this email (announcement) to all the neuroscientists from Puerto Rico that you have in your email address. Needless to say, I greatly appreciate your support and diligence to make this meeting a success. Regards, Carmen S. Maldonado-Vlaar, Ph.D. President Puerto Rico Neuroscience Annual Conference