OPAM 2023 Call for Organizers, deadline extended to March 7th 2023

We are seeking two new OPAM organizers for two-year terms starting in 2023. Selection of organizers will be based on candidates’ experience and nomination letter, which should be sent to opam.info@gmail.com by March 7th, 2023.

Related to the difficulties early career researchers have experienced especially in recent years, our team is also under critical personnel shortage now. We greatly need support from our community and if you know trainees with potential interest and fit, please encourage them and/or nominate them to be an organizer.

Please include a link to the candidate’s website and CV in the nominations. Interested candidates are encouraged to ask for one nomination from a researcher who knows them well. If that person is not also the candidate’s 2023 supervisor, we also require a short letter of approval from the 2023 supervisor.

Criteria for the selection of OPAM organizers include the breadth and depth of research experience and expertise in visual cognition (e.g., familiarity with a broad range of object-processing literature), as well as organizational and interpersonal skills. Preference is given to early-career researchers without faculty positions at the time of appointment, particularly postdoctoral researchers.

Excitement for graduate and postdoctoral research is required!

OPAM 30 Professional Development Awards

Thank you to everyone who applied for the OPAM 30 Professional Development Awards! 2022’s winners are:

  • Prachi Mahableshwarkar (George Washington University)
  • Nickolas Paternoster (University of Central Arkansas)
  • Michaela Ritchie (University of New Brunswick Saint John)
  • Tomer Sahar (The Open University of Israel, University of Haifa)
  • Harun Yörük (University of Houston)

OPAM 30 Best Talk and Poster Awards

We are able to recognize the best research presented at OPAM, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Visual Cognition. All OPAM 30 presentations were judged by a panel of Associate and Consulting Editors from the Visual Cognition Editorial Board and our onsite judge team. We want to specially thank the onsite judge team this year, including Dr. Sarah Shomstein, Dr. Brad Wyble, Dr. Deb Cronin, Dr. Jeff Moher, and Dr. Nancy Carlisle. The Best Talk winner received $300 and the Best Poster received $200.

Congratulations to the winners of OPAM 30’s Best Talk and Best Poster! In 2022, the winners were:

  • Best Talk: Brett Schmidt (Bates College), “Early visual activity in EEG reflects semantic scene category similarity.”
  • Best Poster: Anna C. McCarter (University of Massachusetts at Amherst), “No evidence for a visual recall testing effect for novel, meaningless objects.”

Partnership with Visual Cognition

Visual Cognition has been a longtime supporter and sponsor of OPAM. At OPAM 29, submissions that were chosen for talk presentations will have the opportunity to submit their ultimate manuscripts through a fast-tracked and full peer-review process for publication at Visual Cognition. OPAM talks-turned-manuscripts will be expedited and guaranteed a 40-day turnaround from submission to initial decision (including full reviews). Furthermore, the editorial board at Visual Cognition are eager to mentor young trainees and will provide extra constructive feedback through the peer-review process. Publications that come out of this process will be highlighted as special OPAM papers. This OPAM–Visual Cognition publication opportunity is completely optional, and presenters are by no means obliged to submit to Visual Cognition; furthermore, ultimate acceptance of the submitted manuscript is not guaranteed. However, we sincerely hope that high-quality presentations that are submitted to OPAM and chosen for talks will take advantage of this unique opportunity!

Sponsors

Thank you to our past and current sponsors for making OPAM possible! Consider being a sponsor for 2022. Sponsoring OPAM emphasizes your commitment to supporting the scientific endeavors of early-career researchers (see infographic!), and fostering networking opportunities for individuals who will be on the market for graduate studies, postdoctoral positions, faculty appointments, and industry positions. Sponsorship rates begin for as little as $225, which includes advertising space in the OPAM program, website and e-mails, and spotlight exposure during the conference. Typical sponsors include academic departments, hardware and software companies, and other research-related institutions. If your organization is interested in supporting OPAM, please contact us at opam.info@gmail.com as soon as possible!

2022 Sponsors
We are grateful to our 2022 sponsors for their support in enabling us to organize and run OPAM 30! Consider being a sponsor!