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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
New Gates scholar featured in Huffington Post
One of the recently announced Gates scholars has written about his work as a Google technology pioneer in Africa for the prestigious Huffington Post. Ben Cole [2011], who will take up an award to do an MPhil in Advanced Computer Science in the autumn, wrote about his experience of working to promote technology in Africa and specifically helping to get small businesses online. […]
2011 Gates Scholars selected in international round
Sixty of the world’s most brilliant students have been awarded a prestigious Gates scholarship, including for the first time students from Bolivia, Tanzania and Brunei Darussalam. The new scholars from 29 countries were selected after interviews at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge at the end of March and will join 30 US scholars selected after interviews in […]
Oil abundance aids growth, says study
Being an oil-rich country is not a curse, but the volatility of oil income can prevent a country from capitalising on its assets, according to a new series of studies by economists including Gates alumnus Kamiar Mohaddes [2005]. The study, Does oil abundance harm growth?, published in the journal Applied Economics Letters, argues that previous […]
Gates scholar leads study on grandmother bias
Paternal grandmothers may have evolved to have a beneficial effect on granddaughters and a detrimental effect on grandsons, according to a new study led by a Gates scholar. In ‘The Selfish Grandma Gene’ published in The International Journal of Evolutionary Biology, researchers led by Molly Fox [2008] found evidence to support the idea that there could be […]
Gates scholar publishes Twitter happiness map
Germany is the happiest country in the world, according to a happiness map based on Twitter users. The country rated highest on the map which rated words and icons used to describe happiness on social network site Twitter. It was closely followed by Mexico, the US, the Netherlands and Denmark. Sweden lived up to its […]
Gates scholar lead author on crime article
English boys whose parents were imprisoned have significantly more adult criminal convictions than those whose parents were just convicted but not imprisoned, according to a study by a Gates scholar. The study is published in the British Journal of Criminology and compares the conviction rates of children of convicted and imprisoned parents in England and […]
Gates scholars meet Massachusetts governor
Six Gates scholars met the Governor of Massachusetts last week while he was on a trade visit to the UK and Israel. Governor Deval Patrick was leading a coalition of the Commonwealth’s leading business executives and state economic development officials on an innovation economy development mission to Israel and the United Kingdom. The delegation was […]
Gates scholar in West Side Story
A Gates scholar is ditching the academic tomes for the greasepaint as he takes to the boards in a production of West Side Story. Eviatar Yemini [pictured bottom left] is appearing at Cambridge’s ADC Theatre as a member of the Jets in the famous musical. The show starts tonight and is sold out. Eviatar, who […]
Gates Cambridge Scholars’ Distinguished Lecture – David McCandles
Data-journalist and infographics designer David McCandless delivers a Gates Distinguished Lecture on how visualising data can help us to find interesting patterns and connections.
Gates alumnus wins prestigious award
A Gates alumnus has been given a prestigious award for his outstanding research which could pave the way for new treatments for a range of diseases. Dr Sovan Sarkar (2002-2005), a research scientist at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is one of just four winners of the 2012 UK […]
