History of ANS

History and Foundation of ANS

The Australian Neuroscience Society was founded in 1971 as an informal collection of interested Australian neuroscientists. It held annual meetings with a central theme from 1972-1980. At the 1979 "Neurotoxins" meeting at Flinders, it was decided to form a proper society. At the 1980 Canberra meeting, a formal society was created with a council, which met for the first time on Thursday 7th Feb 1980. At the tenth annual meeting held at Flinders University in Jan 1981, the constitution of the Society was accepted and the Society became incorporated in the Australian Capital Territory during that year. Annual meetings have been held since 1980, usually in late January, early February. Abstracts were published by Elsevier in Neuroscience Letter Supplements 1982-1989, and are now published by the Society itself (1990 and continuing).

Special TINS Issue

A special issue of Trends in Neurosciences celebrating neurosciences in Australia and focussing on ANS was published in February 1992 15(2).

Affiliations of ANS

One of the earliest actions of the newly formed ANS Council in 1980 was to affiliate the ANS as a corporate member of the International Brain Research Organisation (IBRO). This was reported at the Jan 1981 AGM. It affiliated with Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS) upon its formation during 1985 (ratified at the Feb 1986 AGM). ANS was also a founding member society of the Pan Oceanic Neurochemistry Society in 1993. ANS is also affiliated with the Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) and Asian Pacific Society for Neurochemistry (APSN).

Association with IBRO and Asian Neuroscience Community

ANS has been an active member of IBRO since ANS was founded in its present form in 1980. The President is a member of the Governing Council. IBRO formed the IBRO Pan Asian-Oceanic Commission for Neuroscience in 1982 with the aim of improving communication between neuroscientists in the Asian-Pacific region. The Commission was responsible for organising annual Workshops on Neuroscience in the region. In 1989 and 1990, UNESCO and IBRO jointly sponsored visits by young Asian neuroscientists to Australia to participate in the annual ANS meeting and by Australian neuroscientists to several Asian countries on lecture tours. Promotion of neuroscience in the Asian Pacific region by IBRO continues through its Asia-Pacific Regional Committee (see http://www.ibro.info/Pub_Main_Display) which has included at least two ANS members elected by IBRO since it was established in 1999. This Committee distributes IBRO support for Congresses and meetings as well as participating in the selection of IBRO Fellowships and Travel Awards. The Federation of Asian-Oceanian Neuroscience Societies (FAONS, see: http://www.faons.org) was set up in 1996 with the President of ANS or their representative serving on its Council. FAONS holds a Congress every four years.