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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
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Gates Scholars win entrepreneurial prizes
Gates Scholars and Alumni have won prizes for their entrepreneurial ideas. Julia Fan Li, Apoorva Bhandari, Eva-Maria Hempe, Andrew Lynch and Rongjun Chen were involved in four of the 20 successful submissions that won the Cambridge Entrepreneurs prize. The £100 cash prizes were awarded for the best summaries of a business idea in not more […]
Noye’s Fludde rises to Cambridge
Carlos Del Cueto (PhD Musicology, Clare College) swaps the pen for the baton next week, when he conducts Noye’s Fludde by Benjamin Britten as part of the Cambridge Music Festival. It is a challenging work for a conductor, who is required to bring together the combined forces of children’s choir, professional soloists, and stratospheric recorders, […]
Rachel Pike gives climate talk at TED
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Gates Scholar’s article picked up by international media
Congratulations to Molly Fox who has today published a first author article titled ‘Grandma Plays Favourites: X-Chromosome Relatedness and Sex-Specific Childhood Mortality’ in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The paper – summaried below – has been picked up by nespapers internationally, including articles in The New Scientist, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph,The Independent, […]
Gates Scholars at the Festival of Ideas
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Launch of the Gates Scholars’ diaries!
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New 2009 Gates Scholars arrive in the UK
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Gates Scholars talk at Festival of Ideas
Gates scholars Ian Ralby, Mateja Peter and Muhammad Irfan will talk about their PhD research at the forthcoming Festival of Ideas. The festival is organised by the University of Cambridge and will run throughout late October. The Gates Scholars’ session be held between 1.30pm and 2.30pm on 24th October in the Little Hall, Sidgwick Site. […]
Gates Ambassadors reach out to prospective applicants
As part of the Gates Ambassadors program, Gates alumni have been giving information sessions about the University of Cambridge and the Gates Cambridge Scholarships. A number of the 24 Gates Ambassadors have given information sessions at a various universities in the USA and other countries. Sessions have recently been held at a number of universities […]
