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.
Centre College
Nearly 30 Gates Cambridge scholars took part in this year’s Day of Research, sharing their research findings on a broad range of subjects, including war songs in Donbas, the repair of central nervous system cells and bird conservation. […]
Two Gates Cambridge Scholars are sharing the 2019 Bill Gates Sr. Prize which recognise their outstanding research and social leadership. Carol Nkechi Ibe and Cansu Karabiyik have been selected for […]
When she was 16, Isabella Ferreira did some work experience on the paediatric ward of a local hospital in KwaZulu-Natal. The experience of seeing young children with HIV had a […]
Nearly 100 people attended a recent Gates Cambridge event in Mumbai on Human Computer Interaction [HCI] for development. The event was held at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and was […]
Two Gates Cambridge Scholars are among four African scientists at Cambridge who are organising a symposium on Africans in STEM on 28th June. The symposium is the brainchild of four […]
When Bailey Weatherbee was six, she wanted to know why she didn’t have any brothers and sisters. Her parents explained that her father had a chromosomal defect that halved the […]
Dhruv Nandamudi lived most of his early years on the outskirts of Detroit. At eight his family moved to Silicon Valley in California and, despite being very young, the difference […]
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has won a prestigious advocacy award for her outstanding work promoting women in business. Julie Pham, PhD won the Advocate Award at the Female Founders Association’s Champion […]
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been awarded a highly competitive Cambridge Society for the Application of Research PhD Student Award. Carol Ibe [2015] is the first black student to win […]
Ninety of the most academically outstanding and socially committed postgraduates have been awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge, including the first from Mongolia and Burundi. […]