Events

Knight Initiative Spring 2026 Symposium

Year-end Symposium and Research Showcase

The Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience invites our community to a symposium showcasing our award recipients’ trailblazing research on aging, neurodegeneration, and brain resilience. It will include a Stanford neuroscience poster session and contest, as well as a reception. This is an in-person-only event. 

Renowned experts in the field will share their latest research and help us better understand the remarkable resilience of the human brain. 

Register here by May 3

Manage registration

Poster Session and Contest

We encourage Stanford-affiliated attendees from all neuroscience disciplines and career stages to present research, including early-stage unpublished work, at the symposium poster session. 

Knight Initiative Awardees and Brain Resilience Postdocs are expected to present a poster at the Symposium poster session by April 26. 

📌 Posters may be registered or modified through the Symposium registration form.

Poster Session Contest Awards:

  • 1st place - Travel award ($2500) and $500 cash
  • 2nd place - Travel award ($2000) and $300 cash
  • 3rd place - Travel award ($1500) and $100 cash

Poster session information 

Featuring the following speakers:

Deadlines

Registration is required to attend this in-person only event. 

Registration Deadline: Sunday, May 3, 2026 

Poster Submission Deadline (in registration form): Sunday, April 26, 2026

Schedule


  • Registration & Poster Session

  • Opening: Tony Wyss-Coray, Knight Initiative Director

  • Nir Barzilai, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

    Keynote - How to die at a very old age

  • Anne Brunet, Stanford University

    Predicting and promoting resilient brain aging trajectories

  • Takeshi Uenaka, Brain Resilience Postdoc Scholar Alum, Stanford University

    Defined human tri-lineage brain microtissues

  • Break & Topics in Neuro Poster Session

  • Ivan Soltesz, Stanford University

    Brain state transition signaling in brain disorders

  • Katrin Andreasson, Stanford University

    Forever young: immune metabolism and healthy brain aging

  • Closing Remarks: Albina Ibrayeva, Knight Initiative Director of Scientific Portfolio

  • Topics in Neuro Poster Session & Reception

  • Poster Awards Ceremony: Alina Isakova, Knight Initiative Lab Director

  • Symposium Adjourned

Event information