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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
Learning about the world through language
Cameron Taylor has had a varied career since finishing his PhD. Not only has he worked with the former Archbishop of Canterbury on a foundation which organises dialogues between leaders and influential thinkers, but he has just taken up a job as an artificial intelligence interactions architect. The new job, which is based in Norway, means Cameron, […]
Why cultural heritage matters
Cultural heritage is under threat from isolationism, extremism and xenophobia, but this has brought a new understanding of why it matters more than ever, Irina Bokova, the former Director General of UNESCO, said in her Gates Cambridge Annual Lecture yesterday. In her lecture, Why Heritage Matters, Bokova said that while all cultures are different, awareness of […]
‘Most laptops vulnerable to attack via peripheral devices’
Many modern laptops and an increasing number of desktop computers are much more vulnerable to hacking through common plug-in devices than previously thought, according to new research. The research, to be presented today (26 February) at the Network and Distributed Systems Security Symposium in San Diego, shows that attackers can compromise an unattended machine in a matter […]
From the Middle East in medieval times to rare languages and fruitfly behaviour
Three Gates Cambridge Scholars will speak this week about their research into medieval interfaith and intercultural exchange in the Middle East, rare languages where there are no rules on the word order in sentences and fruit fly larva’s ability to adapt their behaviour through experience. The three – Nick Posegay, Matt Malone and Kristina Klein – will take part in […]
First batch of the class of 2019 announced
Thirty-four of the most academically outstanding and socially committed US citizens have been selected to be part of the 2019 class of Gates Cambridge Scholars at the University of Cambridge. The US Scholars-elect, who will take up their awards this October, are from 37 universities including seven institutions that have for the first time produced […]
Creating centres of excellence
Maria Pawlowska has spent the last three years setting up a network of research excellence centres in Poland as coordinator of the International Research Agendas (IRAP) programme at the Foundation for Polish Science. The aim of the programme is to attract the most talented researchers from around the world to Poland in order not only to boost […]
A personal commitment to grassroots activism
Carlos Adolfo Gonzalez Sierra has recently accepted a new job as Associate Director of ACLAMO Family Centres, a non-profit organisation which provides educational programmes and access to social and health services to Latino and other low-income families in Pennsylvania. He sees his own story reflected in many of the residents he now serves and works with. “I see […]
Scholar publishes bestselling cybercrime thriller
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has published a bestselling book on cybercrime in Poland. Jakub Szamalek’s new book, Cokolwiek Wybierzesz [Whatever you choose], was published in January and is already on the bestseller list in Poland. It is thought to be the first book to seriously tackle the issues of cybercrime in Poland and has provoked […]
An interview with Yeo Bee Yin
Yeo Bee Yin [2009] did her master’s in chemical engineering as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She is now Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change in Malaysia where she has helped to set up a nationwide ban on the import of plastic waste and published a 12-year roadmap that includes a legal framework on eliminating the use of single […]
From foster care and astronomy to cowboying
Three Gates Cambridge Scholars will tell personal stories ranging from a year spent at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, cowboying and life in foster care at an event on Wednesday. The Scholar Stories session will hear from Rebecca Charbonneau, Erik Rudicky and Rob Henderson. Rebecca’s talk, Where the Wired Things Are: Life Amongst the Radio Telescopes in the Mountain, […]
