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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
GSS navigates uncertainty
Scholars need to collaboratively design new institutions to tackle the crises of the 21st century world, the first Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the Global Scholars Symposium last weekend. Luis Moreno Ocampo gave the opening keynote at the symposium, which was founded by Gates Cambridge and Rhodes scholars in 2008 and aims […]
For the love of art
Julien Domercq has just finished his first job curating an exhibition. The Drawn in Colour: Degas from the Burrell exhibition at the National Gallery has won five-star reviews from the critics and been seen by just under 400,000 visitors. Julien [2013] took on the curating role just over a year after taking time out from […]
Scholars pitch their passions
The Gates Cambridge Scholars Council held an event last week to help scholars interested in education access and equality hone their pitching skills. Pitch Your Passion brought the Gates Cambridge community together to exchange ideas and experiences. Three Scholars – Sandile Mtetwa, Mike Meaney, and Jerelle Joseph – presented their projects and shared some of the challenges […]
Is pro-social behaviour good for us?
Robert Henderson is interested in moral development and in what encourages us to behave in positive ways towards each other. His PhD in Psychology begins this autumn. “I am interested in what influences people to behave positively, in why people think the way they do and what makes them change their minds,” he says. He […]
2018 Bill Gates Sr Award winners announced
Two Gates Cambridge Scholars have won the sixth annual Bill Gates Sr. Award in recognition of their outstanding research and social leadership. The two Scholars – Jerelle Joseph and Arif Naveed – have been awarded the Bill Gates Sr. Award for 2018. The Award was established by the Gates Cambridge Trustees in June 2012 in […]
Day of Research 2018
Twenty-five Gates Cambridge Scholars will take part in this year’s Day of Research and will talk about research subjects ranging from childhood obesity to modern slavery. The Day of Research takes place at Jesus College on Thursday and kicks off with a keynote speech from Professor David Runciman, a Gates Cambridge Trustee, on Doing Research in […]
Measuring well being in India’s urban slums
Over the last 30 years India’s richest city, Mumbai, has seen a rapid expansion, including a programme to rehabilitate slum areas by moving residents to new high-rise buildings, built on the back of tax incentives for developers. Those buildings, however, are now under scrutiny as research is beginning to show the health impact associated with […]
Constructing the future
What does the future hold? If you rely on the media, it’s a world ruled by vicious artificial intelligence, of walled communities and wars over diminishing resources. But does this dystopian view have to be the only image we have of the future? Could we not plan for different outcomes and scenarios? And what do these […]
The hidden costs of a poverty alleviation initiative
Conditional cash transfer [CCT] programmes have a host of hidden costs for mothers, according to a new book by a Gates Cambridge Scholar. Tara Cookson’s Unjust Conditions: Women’s Work and the Hidden Cost of Cash Transfer Programs follows poor mothers in rural Peru, documenting the ordeals they face to participate in CCT programmes which are aimed at poverty alleviation. CCTs […]
International law for sustainable development
A Gates Cambridge Scholar is helping to organise a conference on international law, sustainable development and natural resources governance with world-class experts giving their views on recent trends, challenges and innovations. Harum Mukhayer is the primary coordinator of the event on recent trends in the principle of sustainable use of natural resources in international law […]
