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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
Artificial Intelligence applications in critical care
A Gates Cambridge Scholar will be presenting on his research findings at the BrainX Community Live event this week. Shubhayu Bhattacharyay [2021] will be speaking about Artificial Intelligence applications in critical care, with a focus on computational decoding of motion time series in critically ill patients with severe brain injury. this relates to a recent […]
Bridging the public health data gap
When Anwesha Lahiri [2021] was doing her master’s fieldwork in India, she visited a tribal village in a remote area on top of a mountain between two districts. Only around 500 people lived there and there was no proper road leading to the village. At the heart of the problem was the dangerous ascent needed […]
Tracing the origins of our political beliefs
What makes some people more vulnerable to extremism than others? How do we build cognitive resilience against extreme ideologies? And how does the brain react to misinformation on social media? These are some of the key political questions that political neuroscientist Leor Zmigrod [2016] is exploring, putting the science into our understanding of radicalisation. Leor […]
A leading woman in STEAM
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been selected as one of the 75 leading women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics in India. Yama Dixit will feature in the second edition of the book She Is, published by the Red Dot Foundation in partnership with the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India to mark 75 […]
Tackling the obesity epidemic in Africa
When she left school, Paula-Peace James-Okoro [2022] intended to become a medical doctor, but after starting a degree in Biochemistry she discovered a passion for the subject and for using it to address one of the major health challenges facing Africa – obesity. She says: “In Africa, the rates of metabolic diseases, like obesity and […]
Triple win for Bill Gates Sr. Prize
For the first time three Gates Cambridge Scholars are sharing this year’s Bill Gates Sr. Prize in recognition of their outstanding research and social leadership. Kim van Daalen, Reetika Subramanian and Cynthia Okoye have been selected for the prize which was established by the Gates Cambridge Trustees in June 2012 in recognition of the late […]
Gates Cambridge Annual Report published
The Gates Cambridge Trust’s Annual Report 2021 is now available. It includes a summary of the Trust’s work during the year and the impact of our scholars and alumni in Cambridge and across the world. You can also read about our 20th anniversary celebrations, the many activities of our scholars and alumni, our impact in […]
Scholar one of 28 to win Carnegie Fellowship
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been named as one of the 2022 Class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows. Jonathan Corpus Ong, Associate Professor of Global Digital Media at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is one of 28 exceptional scholars, journalists and authors who will receive $200,000 stipends. The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program, founded in 2015, involves […]
Gates Cambridge Class of 2022 announced
The Gates Cambridge Class of 2022 made up of 79 outstanding new scholars has been officially announced. The Gates Cambridge scholarship programme is the University of Cambridge’s flagship international postgraduate scholarship programme. It was established through a US$210 million donation to the University of Cambridge from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000; this […]
A nasal and oral spray that aims to reduce Covid transmission and severity
An oral and nasal spray that aims to give added protection against Covid-19 has been developed by a Gates Cambridge Scholar. Dr Vijay Kanuru, a Pune-based nanotech inventor and scientist, has developed the world’s first nano-curcumin-based oral and nasal sprays that protect against Covid-19 infection. Amid another wave of Omicron cases, with many who have […]
