News
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
- Share
Latest News
Communicating art
A Gates Cambridge alumna has curated part of an exhibition on Russian printmaking at the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art. Galina Mardilovich [2008] has been the Jane and Morgan Whitney pre-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum in New York over the past year while finishing her doctoral dissertation, […]
Exploring new pathways
Daniel Storisteanu (2012) is a bit of a polyglot. He has always been torn between zoology and medicine and is about to begin a PhD focused on virology. He also has a great sense of adventure and an interest in the arts. At 25, he has travelled the world and taken part in a range […]
Want to be a Gates Cambridge Scholar?
Applications for the University of Cambridge and Gates Cambridge Scholarships open on 1 September. To apply for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, you must apply for both a Gates Cambridge Scholarship and admission to your chosen postgraduate course at the University of Cambridge through the Graduate Admissions Office. It is not possible to apply for […]
Saving fish
A Gates Cambridge alumna has been awarded a prestigious prize by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Academy of Environmental Law for her book on the role of international law in addressing overfishing. Margaret Young [2003], now an associate professor at Melbourne Law School, won the IUCN’s Junior Scholarship Prize, which goes to […]
Water for life
A Gates Cambridge alumna whose research on groundwater resources in agriculture led to major policy changes benefiting thousands of farmers in West Bengal has been named the first recipient of the “Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, Endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation.” Aditi Mukherji, a senior researcher at the International Water Management Institute’s […]
Video helps to boost teacher effectiveness
The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) has launched a video featuring a Gates Cambridge alumnus discussing his work on a World Bank project that benchmarks teacher policies around the world. In the video, Alejandro Ganimian – currently a doctoral student in Quantitative Policy Analysis in Education at HGSE – presents the soon-to-be-released website for SABER […]
The origins of globalisation
Most development specialists focus on the 1970s and onwards when they talk about the origins of the current global situation, but Luke Fletcher [2010] believes it is vital to look at the decades before that to truly understand the origins of the current system. He is doing his PhD in Politics and International Studies on […]
Alumnus oversees major police operation
A Gates Cambridge Alumnus oversaw the policing of a major political rally in Germany in early August. Dirk-Hinrich Haar [2005] is Superintendent for Germany’s Federal Police and Deputy Chief of the Hanover Federal Police Department. He oversaw a major rally by far right activists in Germany as chief of staff to the operational commander. The […]
How to be a Gates Cambridge Scholar
Do you want to apply for a prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship? Then find out all the information you need at a webinar on 6 September. The webinar will be hosted by the Gates Cambridge Trust and current Gates Cambridge Scholars and will cover details on both applying for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, and information on […]
New GCAA directors named
The new Gates Cambridge Alumni Association Board of Directors has been announced. Co-Chairs are Nathan George (USA, 2003) and Mamta Thangaraj (India, 2003). Nathan, the GCAA’s former Membership Director (USA), is pursuing his PhD in Finance and Real Estate at UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business while managing a multi-million dollar real estate development portfolio. Mamta previously […]
