Last week, Unit members gathered to bid a fond farewell to Dr Jennifer Kaufling as she leaves the Unit to take up her new tenured position of principal investigator (Chargé de Recherche) at the Institute of Cellular and Integrative Neurosciences in Strasbourg, France.

Jennifer has been working as part of the Magill Group, where she has spearheaded the development of a powerful in vivo approach for testing the effects of optogenetic manipulations on the electrical activity of identified neurons in the basal ganglia. Her discoveries are of particular importance for understanding the contributions of distinct cell types to neuronal network dynamics in the external globus pallidus.

Jennifer’s mentor, Peter Magill, commented "It has been a pleasure and a privilege to host Jennifer in the Unit for her postdoctoral training and career development. Jenny is a hugely talented neuroscientist and an exemplary collaborator, and I look forward to exploring further opportunities to work together as Jenny establishes her independent research programme in France. We will all miss working with Jenny in the Unit, but it is a comfort to know that it is ‘au revoir’ and not ‘goodbye’."