Neuramus : our board of education

Jessica Baranger, of Franco-British nationality, grew up immersed in both cultures, fostering her passion for international collaboration. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Language and Civilizations, completed partly through an Erasmus exchange in Wales, and a second Bachelor’s in Tourism Marketing, specializing in events and oenology.
Jessica’s professional journey spans roles in the wine industry, education, and administration, where she developed skills in event organization, student management, and project coordination. Her experience includes working in various positions at the University of Bordeaux and other higher education structures.
As Neurasmus Project Manager, she combines her expertise in European funding, event coordination, and student support. Dedicated to ensuring students feel guided and cared for, Jessica takes pride in creating a welcoming and enriching environment throughout their Neurasmus journey.

Pascal Fossat is full professor in Animal Biology, referent for international relationship at the faculty of Biology and academic co-coordinator of Neurasmus since 2022.
He is co-head of the research team « monoamine, parkinson and pain » at the institute of neurodegenerative disease. Pascal Fossat is a specialist of pain and emotional disorders and the role monoamine. His work showed for the first time the presence of anxiety-like behavior in invertebrates demonstrating the role of serotonin in emotional disorders along the phylogenetic tree, then he applied such approaches to study the relationship between serotonin, emotions and pain in different pathological contexts in mammals that give rise to promising new therapeutic approaches of pain pathologies.

Benedikt Salmen is the scientific coordinator of the MSc/PhD and MD/PhD Program Medical Neurosciences in Berlin. After his doctoral studies in Neurosciences and several years as a postrdoctoral researcher, working mainly with electrophysiology and imaging techniques, he changed to science management and has co-disgned and coordinated the Promotion of Young Researchers focus in both, the Cluster of Excellence NeuroCure and the Einstein Center for Neurosciences Berlin. He holds an MBA in Science Management, the thesis project “How well are graduates prepared to compete on the job market? An Alumni based analysis of factors influencing the employment and careers of graduates” focusing on the competitiveness of Neurasmus and Medical Neuroscience Alumni in the labour market. His responsibilities include the organization, evaluation and development of the educational program including counselling of students and advising faculty members on content related, administrative and pedagogical questions. His responsibilities include the organization, evaluation and development of the educational program including counselling of students and advising faculty members on content related, administrative and pedagocical questions.

João Peça is an Assistant Professor at the University of Coimbra and Principal Investigator at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC-UC). He is also a Board Member at CNC-UC and Treasurer of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience. The Peça Lab research neuropsychiatric and developmental disorders, focusing on how genetic and environmental factors influence neuronal circuits. João pioneered the filed of optogenetics during his Ph.D. at Duke University and studied the role of the cortico-striatal circuit in autism spectrum disorders during his postdoctoral research at MIT. His current research integrates molecular genetics, optogenetics, and electrophysiology using rodent models and human brain organoids to dissect neuronal dysfunction.

Carlos Duarte is a Full Professor at the University of Coimbra and a Principal Investigator at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology. His research focuses on unraveling the mechanisms of synaptic regulation under normal physiological conditions and understanding how their dysregulation contributes to neurological disorders.

David Finn is professor of pharmacology and therapeutics. He is also Principal Investigator and Founding Co-Director of the Centre for Pain Research at University of Galway. The overall aim of Professor Finn's research is to increase our understanding of the neurobiology of pain and psychiatric disorders including anxiety and depression. His work focuses, in particular, on the affective and cognitive dimensions of pain, stress-pain interactions, and neuroinflammatory processes, with an emphasis on the endogenous cannabinoid, opioid and monoaminergic systems.

Dr Kwakowsky is a neuropharmacologist. She is the Programme Director of the MSc in Neuropharmacology with extensive experience teaching pharmacology at postgraduate level. Her research focuses on understanding the pathological mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases and finding drug targets and therapeutic strategies.

Jonas Barth is the scientific coordinator of the MSc/PhD Program in Göttingen. He finished his doctoral studies on discrimination and generalisation during olfactory memory formation and retrieval in 2013 and subsequently continued his career in Science Management. He coordinated a large graduate school for mathematics and natural sciences, including administration, course organisation and alumni work. He took over the responsibilities for the MSc/PhD Program Neurosciences at the University of Göttingen and is focussing on the support of MSc and PhD students as well as faculty members of the program. This includes the coordination and continuous development of the educational program for MSc and PhD students as well as heading the Neurosciences Office as a one-stop-service-unit for students and faculty alike, including e.g. counselling of students and advising faculty members on administrative questions.

Flavie Lavoie cardinal is a neuro-physicist working on the develoment of intelligent nanoscopic methods study molecular interactions in the context of synaptic plasticity. She publishes aroune 40 scientific articles. She is co-coordinator of the neurasmus program

Martin Levesque is professor at LAVAL university, he is in charge of the neuroscience program including students in maitrise and PhD. His research are focused on neurodegenerative disease including parkinson’s disease. He is neuroanatomist and physiologist, focusing on the pathophysiology of dopamine neurons. He published 65 articles and 3 Patents.