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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
Towards a better, more global approach to traumatic brain injury
In 2014 Hafsa Durrani tragically lost both of her brothers in a terrorist attack at Army Public School and College in Peshawar, where the terrorists executed 148 people in the school’s auditorium – 132 students, all the teachers, a lab assistant, a guard and the principal. Five years on, Hafsa, who is from a Pashtoon […]
Understanding exoplanets
The most extensive survey of atmospheric chemical compositions of exoplanets to date has revealed trends that challenge current theories of planet formation and has implications for the search for water in the solar system and beyond. A team of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge and including Gates Cambridge Scholar Luis Welbanks [2017], used atmospheric data […]
Putting local communities at the centre of conservation projects
Onon Bayasgalan’s life has come full circle. As a child she went to primary school in Cambridge and now she is back to do her MPhil in Conservation Leadership. “It feels like I am closing a loop, going back to Cambridge and also because my father did his PhD there. It is very poetic,” she […]
Tracing the philosophical underpinnings of modern Spain
Three Gates Cambridge Scholars – two alumni and one current scholar – joined together for a unique seminar panel to discuss the influence of the 19th century German philosopher Karl Christian Friedrich Krause on Spanish intellectuals. The panel, held in November, was part of the Spanish Intellectuals from Krause to Post-War Britain seminar series, co-convened by Parker Lawson [2017], whose […]
Rethinking the Americas
A Gates Cambridge Scholar participated in last week’s Paris Peace Forum, a global summit founded by French President Emmanuel Macron. Emiliano Cabrera-Rocha [2019] represented Catalyst: Rethinking the Americas, a nascent organisation he is co-founding with a group of activists and scholars from across the Western Hemisphere. The organisation was on a panel about new approaches to drug policy on November 13th. Emiliano co-presented Catalyst’s Rethinking the […]
Humans and robot to debate the future of AI
A Gates Cambridge Scholar will be one of a number of humans who will debate against a robot at the Cambridge Union in a live experiment this week. Sharmila Parmanand, an international debate coach, will take part in the debate on 21st November, entitled “Artificial Intelligence will bring more harm than good in the next decade”. […]
What the ocean can tell us about climate change
Dr Jimin Yu is an Associate Professor in the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University and an expert in paleoceanography. He says his time at the University of Cambridge, part of which was funded by the Gates Cambridge Trust, marked a big turning point in his life and changed his research […]
Global climate change action
Four Gates Cambridge Scholars will take part in the first themed internal symposium on Global Climate Change and Individual Action this week. The symposium on November 14th is being conducted in collaboration with the Gates Climate Group, a scholar-led initiative that works to address the urgent need to tackle human-made climate change. The group aims to further the Gates […]
GP clinics could help bridge mental health treatment gap, study finds
Patients experiencing mild to moderate mental health issues could be managed effectively by GP practices, suggests new research by the University of Cambridge. However, specialist treatment may still prove more cost-effective in the long term, say the researchers. The research was based on a trial carried out by Gates Cambridge Scholar Dr Sabrina Anjara [2014] in […]
Coding for life
When she was an undergraduate Kiera Peltz [2017] attended a careers fair where the majority of employers were tech companies. She was asked if she knew how to code. She didn’t and left feeling slightly deflated and that she should learn coding as soon as she could. A friend who grew up in Silicon Valley […]
