Elizabeth Waters and Aurelia Littlepage

Neuroscience and neuroscientists are a constant in my daughter Aurelia’s life.  Born during my last year of graduate school, she was lulled to sleep many times by the sound of me practicing for my thesis defense.  When we moved to New York City, we lived with scientists and their families at The Rockefeller University and she witnessed the high and lows of my experiments, papers and grants many, many times.  The highs are the relief of a successful experiment, the celebration of a paper accepted for publication, and the opportunity to share my love of the brain and neuroscience research.  A few years ago, she switched from a tween, who didn’t want to go to the “free, live science demonstration” because her whole life was a “free, live science demonstration,” to a teen interested in attending and volunteering for science outreach events.  Also, a teen interested in collaborating with her mom.

Aurelia knows the BraiNY team from attending events hosted by each person’s home institution, visiting their laboratories to learn about their research, and volunteering together at Brain Awareness Week programs.  She is also interested in art and design so when the Society for Neuroscience announced a video challenge to explain “the importance of brain research” it seemed like the perfect opportunity for us to work together. Aurelia deserves credit for the artwork and animation, the scientist’s credit for their ideas and words, and the mother-daughter team for sharing a lifetime of appreciation for the brain.

See our video “Brain Science = Hope” and then check out the other videos from Society for Neuroscience Global Chapter Video Challenge celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Society for Neuroscience.