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Benjamin Cocanougher
- Alumni
- United States
- 2016 PhD Zoology
- St Catharine's College
I grew up catching praying mantises and damselflies in rural Kentucky. As an undergraduate at Centre College, I majored in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; I spent my summers taking care of sick children at the Center for Courageous Kids and doing research in organic chemistry and neuroscience. I matriculated directly to the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and completed my first three years of medical school. I then moved to Janelia Research Campus as a HHMI Medical Research Fellow; there I studied the neural and genetic bases of behavior. As a PhD student in Zoology, I will study adaptive behavior. All animals integrate information about past experience into future decisions; this is the basis of learning and memory. I am proposing to write a specific memory and read the memory trace in the brain. I will use the fruit fly as a model organism. By understanding mechanisms of memory storage, we can begin to investigate changes in memory formation in disease; this may allow us to develop rational therapies for disorders of memory formation, including autism and Alzheimer’s disease. After completing my PhD, I will return to finish my last year of medical school and pursue a career as a child neurologist and neuroscientist, using my lab to better understand the patients I see in clinic.
Previous Education
Centre College
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Latest News
39 new US Scholars selected
Thirty-nine new US Gates Cambridge Scholars have been selected as the programme continues to expand. This year 12 new US universities are represented, including public and private institutions ranging from liberal arts colleges to research universities. This brings the number of US institutions who have had Gates Cambridge Scholars to 183. The 12 institutions are: […]
Handbook for e-accessibility
A handbook which aims to help researchers and practitioners make it easier for elderly and disabled people to use interactive services like subtitling and audio cassette versions of books has been edited by a Gates Cambridge alumnus. Pradipta Biswas [2006] is first editor of the book A multimodal end-2-end approach to accessible computing, published by […]
Food from waste
How can we boost agricultural output in an affordable and safe way and benefit urban and peripheral communities in developing countries? For Luca Di Mario [2009], water sanitation is the key. He is doing his PhD at the Centre for Sustainable Development (Engineering Department) and is looking to find sustainable business models for scaling up […]
Mapping the history of climate change
Did the Harappan civilisation, the largest ancient civilisation in the world, die out after an extreme climate event? Gates Cambridge Scholar Yama Dixit [2009] has been conducting research on lake sediments from three lakes in north west India to see whether climate change played a role. “What we want to do is to understand if […]
What can computers tell us about love?
What can computers tell us about love? What does being an ‘intellectual’ mean? What are the origins of human tool use and how can a lasting peace be built in Sri Lanka? All these questions will be addressed at the first Gates Cambridge internal symposium of the term on Monday. The symposium, which runs from […]
Change through enterprise
Timothy Kotin is not only studying sustainable development – he has set up his own company aimed at changing things on the ground. For Timothy, academic work and social entrepreneurship go hand in hand, and he is anxious to make positive changes in Ghana, his home country. He is studying for an MPhil in Engineering […]
Libby Blanchard talks about how to balance community needs with environmental goals
Libby, a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge pursuing an MPhil in Environment, Society & Development, talks about the challenges of chronic hunger, population growth and biodiversity loss – and her experience of being part of the Gates Cambridge community.
Stan Wang talks about creating non-embryonic stem for use n regenerative medicine
Gates Cambridge Scholar Stan Wang is pursuing a PhD in medicine supervised by recent Nobel Prize winner Sir John Gurdon. Stan works on a technique which takes tissue from any part the human body and gives it embryonic stem cell-like properties. This could have a huge impact on the world of regenerative medicine.
Timothy is applying his passion for technology to improving access to health and education in Africa
Gates Cambridge Scholar Timothy Kotin from Ghana is pursuing an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development and talks about how engineers can use their skills to aid development. Among his many achievements, Timothy has created E-coach Solutions – a start-up in Ghana which uses ICT tools to increase access to education and has over 5,000 […]
Bird watch
Which birds visit your garden and if so, how often? Do you feed them? Do they let you approach them? These any many other questions are part of a nationwide birdwatching survey which aims to involve members of the public in cataloguing bird behaviour. Alison Greggor, a Gates Cambridge scholar doing a PhD in Experimental […]
