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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
Scholar rises up the UN ranks
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been elected as a Vice Chairman of an International Telecommunications Union study group. Pradipta Biswas [2006] has been elected Vice Chairman of the ITU Study Group 9. The ITU is the specialised agency for telecommunication at the United Nations. The study groups carry out standardisation work aimed at improving telecommunications. […]
Gates Cambridge Scholars celebrate International Women’s Day
Two Gates Cambridge Scholars will be speaking on gender equality issues at this year’s Cambridge Festival in April. Professor Jennifer Piscopo, Director of the Center for Research and Scholarship at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California, will be speaking on a panel on Women and power after Covid with Mary Ann Sieghart, author of The Authority […]
Supporting clean energy transitions to save the planet
Clara Ma has been aware of the importance of addressing climate change from an early age. She recalls reading a special issue of Time magazine in 2009 on climate change and biodiversity loss in Madagascar. “It was one of the first things that really made me feel a sense of urgency to respond,” she says. […]
Has Covid boosted some children’s sense of wellbeing?
The common narrative that the pandemic has had overwhelmingly negative effects on the lives of children and young people might not tell the full story. In fact, it seems as though a sizeable number of children and young people may have experienced what they felt was improved wellbeing during the first national lockdown of 2020. […]
Why livestock support matters to refugees
Humanitarian responders and policy makers need to address the political and practical barriers that mean refugees are excluded from veterinary and agriculture support, heightening the risk of zoonotic disease, according to a new study by a Gates Cambridge Scholar. Dorien Braam’s study, Excluding livestock livelihoods in refugee responses: A risk to public health, is published this […]
The road to better policymaking
David Jun Lee [2021] is keen to demonstrate that there are many ways to have an impact on the world and for him that impact comes through better policymaking, especially in Northeast Asia. His PhD in East Asian Studies builds on his experience working at the Central Intelligence Agency both during and after his undergraduate […]
First cohort of Gates Cambridge Class of 2022 announced
Twenty three of the most academically outstanding and socially committed US citizens have been selected to be part of the 2022 class of Gates Cambridge Scholars at the University of Cambridge. The US Scholars-elect, who will take up their awards this October, are from a wide range of backgrounds. They come from 23 universities across […]
Gates Cambridge Trust seeks Alumni & Events Officer
Gates Cambridge Scholarships are prestigious, highly competitive full-cost scholarships awarded to outstanding applicants from countries outside the UK to pursue a full-time postgraduate degree in any subject available at the University of Cambridge. The Gates Cambridge Trust, which manages the scholarship programme, is seeking to appoint an Alumni & Events Officer. If appointed to this role, […]
Using machine learning to understand climate change misinformation
A Gates Cambridge has won a prestigious Alan Turing Enrichment Award to work on public understanding of climate change using machine learning and Artificial Intelligence. Ramit Debnath [2018] will use the award to further his research on climate misinformation. He has been working on the Growing the future: Public perception and climate misinformation in emission […]
Understanding developmental disorders through neuroimaging
Will Snyder’s research is focused on understanding what brain scans can tell us about developmental disorders. His PhD, which he began in 2021, centres on the study of brain development through graph theory analyses of brain folding and brain networks. His aim is to contribute to the growing field of precision medicine, advancing treatments for […]
