Neuroscience

About the Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship

In 1981, the Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund established the Klingenstein Fellowship Awards to better understand epilepsy and improve the lives of those suffering from it.

Over the years, the Fund broadened the scope of these awards to include early career investigators engaged in basic or clinical neuroscience research that could lead to a better understanding of neurological and psychiatric disorders. The awards are now among the nation’s oldest and most illustrious fellowships for highly promising, early career scientists conducting cutting edge neuroscience research.

In 2013, the Fund forged a partnership with the Simons Foundation to launch the Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Awards in Neuroscience. Through this partnership, the Fund continues to award fellowships that support high-risk, high-reward projects. Several areas within the neurosciences are of particular interest:

Cellular and molecular neuroscience. Studies of the mechanisms of neuronal excitability and development, and of the genetic basis of behavior.
Neural systems. Studies of the integrative function of the nervous system.
Translational research. Studies designed to improve our understanding of the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders.

In 2021, the Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund conducted an evaluation of its Neuroscience Fellowship Program. The results can be found here.

The Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Program is dedicated to supporting – both financially and intellectually – the most creative neuroscientists at the start of their independent careers. The fellowship also creates a community, with a life-long network of colleagues, mentors, and friends.

Jeremy Nathans, M.D., Ph.D., Committee Chair, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

About the annual conference

When the Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Awards in Neuroscience was established in 2013, the two foundations wished to deepen the fellowship experience. To further that goal we created an annual conference, which enables fellows to network with their peers, seek feedback on their work, and exchange ideas with leaders in neuroscience.

The meeting brings together current fellows, who are required to attend during the three-year term of their award, as well as select past fellows. It takes place in New York City and includes slide and poster presentations, with time for questions and interaction with the program’s advisors and the foundations’ trustees.

Recipient Spotlight

Gero Miesenboeck, MD

Klingenstein Neuroscience Fellow 2000

“The Klingenstein Fellowship could not have come at a better time. It gave me credibility as a neuroscientist and soothed some of the self-doubt that is an inevitable companion of any creative endeavor. And it supported my early work on optogenetics, which more conservative funding agencies wouldn’t have touched.”