SfN Chapters Spotlight: Hungary Chapter Builds Connections in its First Year

In this spotlight on SfN Chapters, learn how SfN’s Hungary Chapter built a broad neuroscience community through three interconnected pillars: a scientific conference, museum exhibition, and public lecture series. Discover how chapter leaders Gabor Nyiri, PhD and Avin Aphrodite Babakhani, PhD, helped engage researchers, clinicians, students, and the public during the Chapter’s inaugural year. Explore more about SfN’slocal. Explore more about SfN’s local chapters here.

In its first year as an official SfN Chapter, the Hungary Chapter set out to build more than a single annual event. Instead, the Chapter focused on creating a broad neuroscience community through three interconnected pillars: a scientific conference, a museum exhibition, and a public lecture series.

“We are most proud that in our first year we didn't just organize one event; we built three interconnected pillars,” says Chapter representative Gabor Nyiri. “Each had a distinct purpose, but they reinforced one another, and together they let us say that we reached researchers, clinicians, students, and the general public in a single first year.”

A key part of that success was the leadership of Chapter Vice President Dr. Avin Aphrodite Babakhani, who served as chair of the Organizing Committee. Babakhani played an instrumental role in organizing the Chapter’s major first-year initiatives, helping turn the Chapter’s vision into a year of scientific, educational, cultural, and public programming.

A Strong Scientific Foundation

The Chapter’s inaugural conference, held Sept. 30–Oct. 1, 2025, brought together 292 attendees from 11 Hungarian and six international institutions. The program featured 21 scientific talks spanning a broad range of neuroscience disciplines, 17 hands-on workshops, poster presentations, and keynote lectures from Professor Christopher A. Walsh and Professor Susan Amara. Seven members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences contributed as speakers or workshop leaders.

Student engagement was a particular priority. University accreditation allowed many students to receive academic credit for attending, while a dedicated Student Highlights session allowed students to present their research. The conference served not only as a scientific meeting but also as an educational experience that connected students and early career researchers with the wider neuroscience community.

The conference was deliberately designed to extend beyond the traditional scientific meeting format. Contemporary art collections, including neuroanatomical and brain-themed works, were incorporated into the program alongside music, visual art, Hungarian folk traditions, and interactive activities. “We wanted our first year to prove that a Chapter could be scientifically rigorous, publicly accessible, and culturally resonant at the same time; not one at the expense of the other,” Nyiri explains.

The combination of scientific and cultural programming also helped create opportunities for participants to experience neuroscience in different ways. Classical and popular music, Hungarian folk music and dance, visual art, and hands-on activities complemented the scientific sessions and made the conference accessible to people with different interests and backgrounds.

Bringing Neuroscience to the Public

The conference also launched Nerves: Reflections on the Birth of Modern Neurology, a year-long exhibition developed with the Semmelweis Museum of Medical History. The exhibition traces Hungarian neuroscience from prehistoric trepanation artifacts through major scientific milestones, including the development of early EEG technology in Hungary and the work of Nobel laureate György Békésy.

By keeping the exhibition open well beyond the two-day conference, the Chapter extended the reach of its inaugural event throughout the year. The exhibition also placed Hungarian neuroscience in an international context, showing how discoveries and scientific careers have connected Hungary to broader developments in neuroscience and medicine.

The Chapter’s public lecture series further expanded its reach, covering topics such as Alzheimer’s disease, consciousness, epilepsy, brain health, taste, and schizophrenia. Hungarian neuroscientists presented complex areas of contemporary neuroscience in accessible formats, giving members of the public and students opportunities not only to learn about current research, but also to interact directly with researchers and clinicians.

The Chapter found that combining culture and science helped attract audiences who might not otherwise engage with neuroscience. “Someone could walk into the museum drawn purely by the trepanation artifacts or the textile art, and leave having also absorbed something about epilepsy or schizophrenia from the lecture series next door,” says Nyiri. “That sequencing—culture first, science second—is what made the public programming work as well as it did.”

Growing a Community

Official Chapter status also gave Hungarian neuroscientists a recognizable platform for connecting across institutions and career stages. “It signaled that we weren't organizing a one-off event but building something meant to last,” Nyiri says. For students and early career researchers, the Chapter has created “a local, lower-barrier entry point into a professional community that, until now, mostly meant traveling abroad.”

The Chapter’s activities also created new opportunities for researchers from different disciplines and institutions to meet in person, share their work, and establish relationships that can continue beyond individual events. This sense of community has become one of the most important foundations for the Chapter’s future.

One of the most memorable moments of the first year came from Professor Susan Amara, a past SfN president who had been involved in the Chapter’s early development. At the museum exhibition opening, Amara encouraged the team to begin developing the next generation of Chapter leaders early. Her advice has already influenced the Chapter’s plans.

“We're working on ways to bring younger students and people with disabilities into the Chapter's activities, not only as attendees but as future organizers,” Nyiri says. The goal is to ensure that the Chapter continues to grow while creating a more inclusive community in which future leaders can develop experience and take ownership of its activities.

Lessons for New Chapters

The Chapter’s first year was not without challenges. Funding was its biggest constraint, particularly because many neuroscience grants and sponsorship opportunities are restricted to U.S.-based organizations or events. For an international Chapter, this can make it difficult to secure support for venue costs, exhibition preparation, speaker travel, and public engagement activities.

Looking back, Nyiri says the team would “map the funding landscape earlier” and identify potential local sponsors before beginning major planning. Building institutional and cultural partnerships early also proved valuable, particularly when partners could provide expertise, venues, or other forms of in-kind support.

For new Chapters, his advice is to build a diverse core team, establish partnerships early, and document impact from the beginning. Most importantly, he recommends thinking beyond a single flagship event.

“We'd tell new Chapters to think in terms of pillars, not a single flagship event,” he says. “A scientific meeting, a public-facing initiative, and a community-building initiative each serve a different audience.”

As the Hungary Chapter begins its second year, its first year demonstrates how a Chapter can bring together scientific excellence, public engagement, culture, and community building. The success of that first year was made possible by the collective efforts of the Chapter team, including the leadership and organizational work of Babakhani and the many researchers, students, institutional partners, and cultural collaborators who contributed to the program.

The Chapter’s experience also suggests that the strongest foundation for a new neuroscience community may not be a single successful event, but a connected set of activities that reinforce one another and create multiple ways for people to participate.

“Enthusiasm is what starts a Chapter,” Nyiri says. “Structure, partnerships, and a long-term plan are what keep it going.”