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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
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 […]
Provost and Executive Officer speak at NAFA conference
The Provost and Executive Officer of the Gates Cambridge Trust took part in the sixth biennial conference of the National Association of Fellowships Advisors in Chicago last week. The US association helps advisers to promote fellowship advising in higher education and to support candidates through the application process. Professor Robert Lethbridge, Provost of the Trust, […]
Rwanda Entrepreneurship Week gets under way
Rwandan students are taking part in the first Rwanda Entrepreneurship Week next week. The Week, which runs from 25 to 30 July, was set up by a Cambridge team from the University of Cambridge Beyond Profit group, including Gates scholar Julia Fan Li [2008]. Julia worked in Rwanda in 2009 on a report on financial […]
Alumnus shoots his way to two gold medals
A Gates alumnus will be picking up two gold medals this weekend after taking part in a major National Rifle Association competition. Pradipta Biswas [2006] took part in the recent 142nd Imperial Shooting Meeting in Besley, one of the biggest on the shooting calendar. One of his scores (148/150) ranks within the top 10 scores […]
Halliki Voolma
Women with insecure immigration status who are suffering domestic violence have few places to turn. There is little support open to them which means they often face a stark choice – living in destitution or being forced to stay with their abuser. This problem has received very little attention in academia despite the fact that […]
