RN. I had a very enjoyable lunch reconnecting with Hector Bravo-Rivero today in North Bethesda.  We first met when I was teaching in the MBL SPINES course and he was course assistant in 2014.  Initially, SPINES stood for Summer Program in Neuroscience, Ethics and Survival and it was a professional development program for students from underrepresented groups in neuroscience.  Later, after I became Director of Education at MBL in 2016, I changed the name of the course to Summer Program in Neuroscience, Excellence and Success.  This was a way to emphasize that, rather than being a remedial course, the goal was to take the best trainees of color to develop their networking and leadership skills to create more inclusivity in neuroscience.

Hector was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and, at the time I got to know him, he was doing fascinating research on fear responses at the University of Puerto Rico with Dr. Greg Quirk.  Hector is a sunny, very friendly and extremely nice person and we bonded quickly.  A year later, when Felix and I visited San Juan, we met Hector and his girlfriend (now wife) for dinner.  Just before we embarked on our epic road trip, I discovered Hector was here in Bethesda when he asked to connect on LinkedIn.  I was pleased to find he was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health, so I immediately messaged him and set up our lunch today.  Connecting and reconnecting with people is something I thoroughly enjoy!

FE. More than forty years ago I arrived in Boston for a couple of years of additional training, leaving friends in Switzerland and Germany, just temporarily, I thought. Forty years later I realize I am here to stay. I am so very grateful that Rae’s friends have adopted me and that this trip lets us visit them. Here are a few of them, all nerdoscientists, last night, enjoying food and company in DC at Oyamel by Jose Andres. Most of the crew are retired, so I am sure our Falmouth friends will meet many of them when they come visit the Cape! Be warned, the jokes of the group can be classified as in that well defined triangle between unique, odd and obscure.