The international Dana Foundation Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is always a high point of the Oxford Neuroscience Year. This year we extended BAW in order to launch the Brain Diaries, our most comprehensive public engagement programme to date. The focal point of Brain Diaries is an exhibition at the Museum of Natural History following the life of the brain from development through to senescence. This involves researchers from all the key neuroscience departments in Oxford. The exhibition runs from 10th March 2017 through to 1st January 2018. Around the exhibition we have built an extensive programme of interactive activities art and music events, a film screening and even a panel game. The programme started with Super Science Saturday on the 11th March, SciBar provided an opportunity to meet researchers over a pint, Paul Bolam (Pharmacology) and Gabriele de Luca (NDCN) gave public talks. At the weekend we moved to the Ashmolean for interactive activates and a fascinating duo of talks about the brain and perception by Kia Nobre (Experimental Psychology) and artist Sigune Harmann. The first week ended with ‘Brain Aware’ a series of interactive activities at the Museum of the History of Science. Subsequent events included a lively panel game, 'No Bell Prize', testing researchers ability to discuss their work without using jargon. This was won by Susannah Murphy (Psychiatry). In addition, Clare Mackay (Psychiatry) gave a fantastic talk telling the story of how neuroimaging is revolutionising the study of dementia
The Brain Diaries programme continues across the summer.