Archives of Previous Announcements for 2007

Partnership between the FROUM and the Vision Network

Please note that research funds are available from the FROUM. Moreover, a special program, within the framework of a collaboration between the FROUM and the Vision Network, is available for which the details can be found on page two of this document.

Annual meeting 2007

Dear Vision Network members,

As announced earlier, the annual meeting of the vision network will be held October 19 2007 at the Université Laval. 

The invited speaker will be Professor José-Alain Sahel, the director of the Paris Vision Institute. You may download Professor Sahel’s C.V. here.

I would like to remind you that all those who received funds from the Network (student recruitment, summer internships, training internships, projects in partnership, data banks, etc.) must submit an abstract for the annual meeting. The abstracts must be handed in electronically to the secretariat of the Network (reseau.vision@mcgill.ca ) before Monday October 1 2007.

Finally, in order to facilitate transportation between Montréal and Québec, we plan to furnish a free shuttle bus which will leave Montréal at 6:00 A.M. and return around 7:00 P.M. Interested parties should reserve their places as soon as possible (before September 21) by communicating directly with the Network’s secretariat.

Pierre Lachapelle
Scientific director
Vision Network

Funding announcements 2007-2008

To all members of the Vision Network :

The Vision Health Network is pleased to announce the following funding:

SHARED INFRASTRUCTURE: An amount of 100,000.00$ (maximum of 25,000.00 per infrastructure) has been set aside for the support of infrastructure (data bases, tissue banks, etc.), which already exist or are under construction. Those who submit are invited to use the form Research Infrastructure Grants. The participation of another granting agency (partnership) in the funding of the project will be considered highly positive.
The deadline is October 20, 2007.

PROJECTS IN PARTNERSHIP: An amount of 40,000.00$ has been set aside (20,000.00$ for a clinical research project and 20,000.00$ for fundamental research) in order to support research initiatives that will lead to the creation of new research teams. The projects should be submitted with the form Projects in Partnership Grants. The participation of another funding agency (partnership) will be regarded highly.
The deadline is September 21, 2007.

PROJECTS IN PARTNERSHIP II: An amount of 80,000.00$ has been set aside for the creation of new partnerships. To be admissible, the project must address one of the priorities of the Vision Network and the validity of the partner must be approved by the FRSQ. Projects should be submitted using the form Projects in Partnership Grants.
The deadline is: open. Projects will be evaluated upon receipt.

STUDENT RECRUITEMENT: An amount of 10,000.00$ will be used to facilitate the recruitment of students interested in continuing their graduate studies in the area of vision science. Candidates must be on the verge of starting their graduate studies or have been enrolled no earlier than May 2007. The bursaries will be attributed to the candidates that are judged to be the most promising. To qualify, the candidates must hand in their request with the following documentation:
" A brief description of the project, including:
o A literature review and hypothesis (1 page maximum)
o Experimental methods and anticipated and/or obtained results (1.5 pages)
o A career plan (0.5 pages)
" The candidates academic information, a common (FRSQ, CIHR) type CV
" A letter of support from the proposed supervisor. The latter must also agree to complete the bursary in order to bring it to a level that is acceptable for a graduate student (approximately 1500.00$ per month).
N.B.: Accepted candidates must also submit their candidacy to a granting agency with a peer reviewed system such as the FRSQ or CIHR. This submission must be carried out during the same year for which the bursary is given. In order to obtain all the payments of this bursary, a copy of the above mentioned submission to a granting agency must be sent to the Vision Network.
Deadline: September 21, 2007.

For more information do not hesitate to contact the secretariat of the Network : reseau.vision@mcgill.ca

 

Annual Retina axis meeting

Dear colleagues,

You are all invited to the annual Retina axis meeting which will be held on July 10 2007, at Ste-Justine Hospital (3175 Côte Ste-Catherine) at the Albert Royer room (Floor A, next to the Research Center). The schedule, including abstracts is available here; presentations will begin at 9 a.m. As for previous years, there will be prizes for the best presentations by students/post-docs. Moreover, there will be two researchers who will present work from their laboratories (Dr. Arbour [Clinical research], and Dr. Salesse [Biomedical research]).

I will be pleased to see you all at the meeting,
Sylvain Chemtob


Student recruitment funding (deadline 2007)

Those students who wish to submit an application must be on the verge of finishing their undergraduate studies and beginning their graduate studies in vision research in September 2008 at the very latest. These bursaries, of 10 000.00$ each, will be given to those students who are judged to show the most promise. To qualify, candidates must submit the following:

- A brief description of the project, including :
o A literature review and hypothesis (1 page maximum)
o Experimental methods and anticipated results and/or obtained results  (1.5 pages)
o Career plan (.5 pages).

- The candidate’s academic information (grades), as well as a CV.

- A letter of support from the research director as well as the director’s CV in the common (FRSQ, CIHR) format. The director must accept to complete the bursary to bring it to a level that is acceptable for a graduate student (approximately 1 500.00$ per month).

N.B.: Candidates will also have to submit a bursary application to a peer reviewed granting organism such as the FRSQ and CIHR during the year for which support has been obtained. In order to receive all payments of the bursary, a copy of the submission will have to be set to the secretariat of the Network.

Deadline June 4 2007.


Conference by David Hubel

The Université de Montréal will deliver a doctorate Honoris Causa to Doctor David Hubel, the laureate of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine (1981), during the graduation ceremony of the School of Optometry on June 1 2007.

Within this context, David Hubel will present a conference titled:

The Crystalline Organization of the Monkey Primary Visual Cortex

Wednesday May 30 at 12p.m. in room M-415 of the Roger Gaudry pavilion

Everyone is invited to the conference!

Download the announcement.


Many sources of funding available

Many sources of funding are available (recruitement, specialisation, and summer studentship) for students . The deadline is June 4 2007. Documents may be sent to the secretariat of the Vision Network.

 


The Vision Network's memoire chosen by the INMHA

The Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction has chosen our memoire; " Défis en recherche en santé de la vision pour les dix prochaines années" in their strategic plan for 2007-2011. Thank you to all who participated in the creation of the memoire and in particular to Isabelle Brunette.

To see the letter received from the INSMT.

 


Renewal of Vision Network funding

We have the pleasure to announce that the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ) has renewed (and increased) the funding of the Vision Research Network for an annual amount of $400 000, for a period of four years. To consult the letter from the FRSQ confirming the renewal click here.

 


4th Scientific Day of the School of Optometry

The program for the 4th Scientific Day of the School of Optometry of the Université de Montréal is now available. The event will be held on March 30 2007.


Congratulations to Dr. Maurice Ptito!

The Law firm Jon Palle Buhl, administrator of the Henry and Karla Hensen Prize of excellence, has announced that Prof. Maurice Ptito is the laureate of the 2007 award. The award is accompanied by an amount of DKK 500 000 (100 000$ CAD). Although the prize is usually attributed to scientists in the fields of Heart and Multiple sclerosis research, the committee recommended Prof. Ptito for the innovative character of his research on cross-modal plasticity and the impact of his work on people suffering from blindness. The prize has been handed to Prof. Ptito at a ceremony organized on March 2, 2007 at the Frilands Museum in Lyngby. Congratulations to Maurice!

The director (left) of the Henry and Karla Hensen
Prize of excellence presenting the award.

The Dr. Maurice Ptito (right), accompanied by the
representative from the Université de Montréal the
Dr. Christian Casanova (left), upon receiving the prize.

 


Submission for the 11th Vision Network Prize

The deadline for submission for the next Vision Network Prize is March 15 2007. The submitted article must be on a subject related to vision health and have been published in the last six months. The candidate must send the following information to the secretariat:

1. A short biography (1 page)
2. A photography
3. The presneted article, of course!

An article can be presented more than once. The criteria are the quality of the article as well as the prestige of the journal it is published in. All documents should be sent to the secretariat of the network, in an electronic format, at réseau.vision@mcgill.ca. Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. The recipient will receive a bursary of $500.



Doctorate honoris causa

Doctor David Hubel, neurophysiologist and Nobel prize winner in physiology or medicine (1981) will be honoured at the School of Optometry’s 2007 graduation ceremony. He will receive a doctorate honoris causa from the University of Montréal.

Professor David Hubel, a native Montrealer, carried out seminal work on the visual system at the end of the 1950s. He trained as both a physicist and M.D., and graduated from McGill University. Thereafter he did not practice medicine, preferring to join the laboratory of Dr Stephen Kuffler at Johns Hopkins Hospital to study the neuronal underpinnings of visual perception. He first designed the modern microelectrode and hydraulic micro-drive which was (and still is) used by generations of sensory and motor systems and physiologists to record the activity of cerebral neurons. Subsequently, along with Dr Torsten Wiesel, he described the properties of visual neurons and the modular organization of the visual cortex. He later demonstrated and explained, in elegant experiments, the anatomical and physiological effects of pathological conditions such as amblyopia and strabismus, as well as the functional consequences of their associated treatements. Along with Torsten Wiesel he received the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine in 1981 for the impact of his work. There is no doubt that the work of Dr Hubel allowed the emergence and development of modern visual electrophysiology and his studies paved the way for vision science researchers around the world, including many professors here at the Université de Montréal and other universities in Québec. All of whom may consider themselves as the scientific offspring of Dr Hubel! Of course, Dr Hubel’s career did not end upon receiving the Nobel prize. He continued his work, particularly in the area of colour perception. He was the first to show that colour selective neurons are confined to cortical modules named “blobs”. He then went on to study different aspects of visual function and ocular movements which are associated with optical illusions. He has published approximately 100 articles in the most prestigious journal such as Science and Nature, and has published one of the best books concerning vision science.

Dr. David Hubel

 


Funding available

The Fondation des maladies de l’œil and the Vision Health Network of the FRSQ are pleased to announce available funding for one or more research projects related to vision. The amount available is 65 000$ (the foundation is contributing 40 000$ and the Network 25 000$). For these proposals we wish to emphasize projects that are in areas that are judged to be a priority by both partners. That is, either clinical research, or a project with a direct clinical link.

Please use the projects in partnership form, while indicating that it is being submitted within the context of the partnership between the Vision Network and the Foundation. Projects must be submitted, in electronic format to the secretariat of the Network, no later than February 15 2007.

We hope that this initiative will be received favourably by researchers in Québec.

Alain P. Rousseau, cm, md, frcs.
Scientific Director
Fondation des maladies de l'oeil.

Pierre Lachapelle, PhD.
Scientific Director
Vision Health Research Network
FRSQ