The MDRS was founded by the late Laird Cermak, and held its first meeting in Boston in 1989. Starting in 2001, a travel award for postdoctoral fellows was established in Cermak’s name, with generous support from Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Nature Neuroscience, and F1000. Each year since, 1-3 outstanding postdoctoral researchers have been selected to attend MDRS and give a talk. In 2017, a second travel award was established specifically for female postdoctoral fellows to honor the legacy of championing women in science by the late Sue Corkin.