JUNE as the Voice for Undergraduate Neuroscience Education

It is a great pleasure to present the latest edition of JUNE. It is hard to believe that five years have gone by since JUNE began; but like its parent organization, FUN, our flagship journal has taken root and is growing each year. I am honored to be selected as the new Editor-in-Chief, and I am humbled by the pioneering work of Julio Ramirez and Barbara Lom in launching JUNE over five years ago. Fortunately, Julio will continue to serve on our editorial board and Barbara will take Julio’s place as our Senior Editor, an arrangement which has already proven to be a godsend to me. A major goal for me will be to continue the excellent traditions established by Barbara and Julio and to ensure that JUNE is the voice of undergraduate neuroscience education. This is not an easy task, and after getting a taste of preparing this edition of JUNE, I have gained a much deeper respect for the job that Barbara has done over these past five years. Through her outstanding contributions, she has earned every bit of the enormous appreciation and gratitude that those of us who have been associated with JUNE from the beginning have for her. A second major goal will be to have JUNE indexed in PubMed. This may require some changes, such as becoming affiliated with an established publishing company, but I think the governing boards of JUNE and FUN are eager to take the steps necessary to accomplish this goal. Finally, a third major goal will be to ensure that we are protected by proper copyrighting. Fortunately, we have an outstanding Associate Editor, Bill Grisham, who has explored what needs to be done to accomplish this, and has a draft of a new copyright agreement prepared to present to the JUNE and FUN governing boards. I am excited about my new role in JUNE, primarily because I have enjoyed my interactions with all the wonderful people associated with JUNE and FUN over the years. We have an extraordinary Editorial Board, filled with people who are passionate about undergraduate neuroscience education, and sharing this mutual interest makes working for JUNE and FUN such a joy. I am especially delighted to be working with Fern Duncan, who does an exceptional job of copy editing and ensuring the submissions are ready to go. I anticipate some growing pains, and as we undertake the necessary transitions, I hope the readers will be patient with the inevitable mistakes, particularly since the gradient of my learning curve gets less steep each year. I can only promise I will do my best at filling the giant shoes left to me, but I am confident that with the help of all of you (yes—I will probably ask many of you to review manuscripts in your area of expertise), JUNE will continue to blossom and be the voice for neuroscience education. As always, the new issue of JUNE is filled with exciting new insights into pedagogy and new methods of neuroscience instruction, as well as a nice media review by Karen Mead on “Shaken: Journey into the Mind of a Parkinson’s Patient.” In addition, there are several timely editorials that many of our readers will find interesting. Julio’s editorial nicely underscores how the interdisciplinary nature of neuroscience makes it an ideal area of study in the context of a liberal arts education. Bill Pizzi’s editorial challenges us to incorporate teaching of evolution into our curriculum, and if you don’t think this is needed, watch some video clips of recent presidential debates. Ann Stuart’s editorial challenges the Society for Neuroscience to provide more information and support for undergraduate teaching. The commentaries by Richard Olivo and Eric Wiertelak provide further insights into the role the Society has and/or should play in regards to undergraduate education from somewhat different perspectives. From my own, more selfish perspective, I do not discount Ann’s concerns, but I am retrospectively relieved that the Society did not make undergraduate education a primary concern during the early years—only because it left this niche to FUN—and provided the opportunity to bond with so many wonderful people who share this common passion. Nonetheless, it is critical to advocate for our cause and to explore how FUN should interact with the Society. It is gratifying that JUNE can provide a forum for this discussion, and this is as it should be if we are to remain the voice of undergraduate neuroscience education. I hope you enjoy our newest and largest-ever issue of JUNE. I also hope that you will continue to support JUNE and help me in my quest to maintain the high standards set by my predecessors during this transition. Your patience and support will be greatly appreciated, and my guess is that next year—we will have JUNE in June! Thanks you for this opportunity and I look forward to seeing you at the FUN Social in San Diego this November.