The official opening took place on December 8-10, 2016 with a festive grand opening symposium. We are happy to be looking back on three marvelous days filled with amazing new insights, impulses and lively discussions.

The kick-off meeting was held in Berlin at the Veterinary Anatomy Theatre with an introduction to the Berlin history of Neurosciences, the symposium continued on Friday with talks from our distinguished speakers.

Jan Born, Michael Brecht, Eckart Gundelfinger, Andreas Herz, Peter Jonas, Andreas Lüthi, Hannah Monyer, Edvard Moser, Hans-Christian Pape, David Papineau, Wolfram Schultz and Yosef Yarom shared their research and engaged our over 300 participants in lively discussions about the skillful mind, why rats are ticklish and how sleep supports the memory function of our brain.

The day ended with a party and live band in the Charité lecture hall ruin. In a relaxed atmosphere, our professors, students and guests discussed the impressions of the day or just indulged in the music.

The talks continued on the third and final day of the symposium with Michael Frotscher, Magdalena Götz, Brigitte Kieffer, Avihu Klar, Arthur Konnerth and Bert Sakmann.

We were happy to welcome many guests from different nations, and the meeting has clearly exceeded our expectations.

Our national and international guests made the event a huge success! It showed that our communal efforts to strengthen Berlin as a city of excellent scientific research can offer vital space for young scholars to learn and be inspired. With scientific meetings like this, our Einstein Center is keen to promote fellows and stimulate multi-dimensional thoughts and efforts that will bring us closer to better understanding of the brain in the future.