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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
Gates Cambridge Scholarships 10th anniversary podcast: education and technology in the 21st century
A panel discussion on how education and technology are and could be used in the 21st century
Celebrating the first 10 years
The 10th Anniversary celebrations of the Gates Cambridge Scholarships were a huge success, with over 350 scholars, alumni, guests and visiting speakers gathering in Cambridge on 2- 4 July 2010 to discuss issues of global interest. The event was jointly organised by the Gates Scholars’ Alumni Association, the Scholars’ Council and the Gates Cambridge Trust. […]
Gates Scholar’s essay in New Scientist
Gates Scholars Corina Logan recently won the New Scientist / Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour Science Writing Prize, for her essay on how corvids (birds in the crow family) support each other after stressful events. Her work is published this week in New Scientist. She compares the behaviour of corvids after a dispute, […]
Gates alumna writes in USA Today on protecting reality TV child stars
Gates alumna Hilary Levey (2002) has an op-ed this week in USA Today, on the laws needed to protect children who appear in reality TV programmes. In the article she highlights the gaps in legal protection for children who are the subject of reality TV shows, and who are often exploited by parents who seek […]
Gates Scholar’s contribution to diabetes research
The article, published in this week’s issue of The Lancet, shows that diabetes approximately doubles the risk of a wide range of blood vessel diseases, including heart attacks and different types of stroke. The research is based on an analyisis of 700,000 people, each of whom was monitored for about a decade in 102 surveys […]
Summer 2010 issue of The Gates Scholar Magazine now available
The Summer 2010 edition of the Gates Scholar Magazine features issues that matter to scholars and alumni – such as global health improvement, renewable energy in Africa and violence against women. A forum on the role of spiritual beliefs in research and a piece on free will and politics provide interesting topics for debate.The issue […]
Global Scholars’ Symposium: keynote speech by Sir Charles Antony Richard Hoare
The third annual Global Scholars Symposium was host by Gates Cambridge Scholars on 11 and 12 June at Cambridge University. One of the highlights of the symposium was a keynote speech by Sir Charles Antony Richard Hoare entitled ‘My fifty years in computing’, which is reocrded here.
Global Scholars’ Symposium: scholarships panel discussion
The third annual Global Scholars Symposium was host by Gates Cambridge Scholars on 11 and 12 June at Cambridge University. One of the highlights of the symposium was a panel discussion on the aims of international scholarship programmes in the 21st century, which is recorded here.
