BigBrain Workshop 2025

This workshop has established itself as the annual meeting place for the BigBrain community to come together and present their latest research, discuss prospects of the BigBrain associated data and tools, and brainstorm on how to leverage high-performance computing and artificial intelligence better to create multimodal, multiresolution tools for the high-resolution BigBrain and related datasets. 

The BigBrain data set - a 3D model of the human brain in extremely high resolution developed by McGill University in Canada and Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany - is part of the Human Brain Atlas on EBRAINS.

This year’s workshop also serves as the Closing Symposium of the Helmholtz International BigBrain Analytics and Learning Lab (HIBALL), highlighting the remarkable achievements of this transatlantic collaboration. To mark this special occasion, we will feature an exceptional lineup of distinguished speakers, not only to celebrate HIBALL’s success but also to explore the future of brain science, fostering discussions on innovative methods and applications in the field. Speakers include : Helen Zhou, Alexandra Young,  Andreas Horn, Petra Ritter, and Dagmar Kainmüller.

The BigBrain Workshop will again be held in conjunction with a Training Day, taking place as a full-day event on October 27, on-site at the conference venue. 

Mark your calendars and plan to attend this exciting event in Berlin. We hope to see you there!

The event is free of charge but prior registration is required. 

Call for contribution: The workshop will be organized as a symposium, with both invited speakers and contributed talks as well as a poster session. We welcome abstracts of current work and/or short proposals for future initiatives related to the BigBrain or similar data. Abstract submission will open in May.

Information about the programme and activities will be updated regularly on the event website - please visit: go.fzj.de/BigBrainWorkshop2025  

Important dates 

Abstract submission open: May 28, 2025

Abstract submission due: August 13, 2025

Acceptance notifications: September 2, 2025  

Registration deadline: September 26, 2025 

Organizing Committee

Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University Montreal          

• Alan C Evans          

• Paule-Joanne Toussaint

Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Forschungszentrum Jülich          

• Katrin Amunts          

• Susanne Wenzel

Local Organizing Committee:          

Berlin Institute of Health & Dept. of Neurology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin         

• Petra Ritter         

• Michael Schirner

• Leon Stefanovski