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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
Webinar for US applicants takes place next week
Gates alumni and the Gates Cambridge Trust will be holding a webinar in September for US applicants on how to apply for a scholarship. The US Application webinar will be held on 14th September from 11am EST [16.00 BST] to 12.30pm [17.30] . Jennifer Piscopo, Co-Chair of the Gates Scholars Alumni Association, Daniel DiCenso, GSAA […]
Under the microscope
When Guilhem Chalancon was seven he wanted to be a neurosurgeon. He was interested in the biology of the brain and waded his way through heavy medical texts. “I learnt a lot about anatomy from that and my parents. It’s a big advantage in life sciences so I am thankful to my parents for stimulating […]
Wellbeing and where you live
While Annalijn Conklin was growing up, she saw her mother and her best childhood girlfriend suffer from a number of progressive chronic illnesses. During childhood, Annalijn’s mother was in and out of hospital due to an auto-immune disease called SLE (lupus). Because of this and other chronic illnesses, Annalijn’s mother was interested in complementary medicine […]
Webinar on career development scheduled for October
Three Gates alumni are organising a webinar on career development, continuing research and networking. The webinar, the second in a series of talks for scholars on career development, is expected to take place on 8th October. The organisers are Pradipta Biswas, Rose Spear and Maja Milicevic.They say: “The previous webinar provided a picture of socially […]
Hi-tech cluster workers ‘make reluctant social networkers’
Innovation and high-tech “clusters” inspired by the success of Silicon Valley in the United States are, ironically, struggling to get much social networking out of the scientists who inhabit them, a new study by a Gates alumnus suggests. Research into the “Silicon Fen”, a collection of high-tech businesses around Cambridge named in direct homage to […]
Gates Scholar – Elect makes local headlines
Mukhta Natrajan was described as “promising scholar” when she joined the Center of Undergraduate Research Opportunities program at the University of Georgia, a quality that must have stuck with her, as Mukhta was awarded one of 90 Gates Cambridge Scholarships earlier this year. Already holding a bachelor’s degree in genetics and a master’s degree in […]
Rwandan Entreprise Week a big success
One hundred and fifty Rwandan students attended the first Rwandan Enterprise Week last week. The Week is an initiative of a group of Cambridge students, including Gates scholar Julia Fan Li [2008]. The organisers had hoped for a maximum of 100 students, but 240 had registered online before the event and the organisers had to select the most enthusiastic. […]
Blood and books
Anne Leone‘s PhD is about the significance of blood in the work of Dante so it is ironic that her involvement in a vampire film society is completely unconnected with it. “I was talking to my graduate tutor’s husband, the freelance writer and film critic Kevin Jackson. I was saying that I don’t sleep much […]
Alumna gives presentation at Singapore scholarship fair
A representative from the Gates Cambridge Alumni Association gave a presentation to around 200 prospective students at a scholarship fair in Singapore earlier this month. Ivy Chia [2004], Director of Professional Development at Gates Cambridge Alumni Association, spoke at the largest ever Scholarship & Top University Fair on 17 July. The fair has been held […]
Max Gwiazda
For someone who did his PhD in medieval monastic architecture, studying something as contemporary as the politics of a city like Jerusalem may seem a large leap, but for Max Gwiazda [2001] it made absolute sense. Max, who was born in Germany, home to its own city in conflict – Berlin, understanding the historical context […]
