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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
Upskilling the world in digital skills for the future
A computer science education company founded by a Gates Cambridge Scholar has gone from strength to strength, partnering with universities across the world and earning plaudits from a UK minister for its work in driving up digital skills. HyperionDev was founded by Riaz Moola as an online coding bootcamp based in South Africa. It has […]
Rob Henderson to speak at Gates Cambridge event
Gates Cambridge Scholar Rob Henderson will be speaking about his best-selling memoir Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class at an event at Bill Gates Sr. House next Friday [4th October]. The book, published by Simon & Schuster, tells of Rob’s journey from foster care to the military to academia and explores […]
Exploring Black intellectual history
Before his PhD Siyabonga Njica [2018] was a respected spoken-word poet and he is passionate about exploring Black intellectual history through exiled South African writers and artists. He believes strongly that their stories should not remain in the archives, but should be widely understood and their impact on South African and global culture celebrated. He […]
Sugarcane: a Q & A with Emily Kassie
Gates Cambridge Scholar Emily Kassie spoke about her award-winning documentary film Sugarcane at a screening in Cambridge this week. Sugarcane won the US Documentary Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year for its investigation into systematic abuse at an Indian residential school in Canada. Emily co-directed and co-produced the film which is a searing documentary […]
Celebrating the natural world
A new seven-part natural history series will explore the wildlife of our planet’s largest continent, covering the length and breadth of Asia and highlighting dramatic, previously unseen behaviour. Presented by Sir David Attenborough, the series, which is due out shortly, will also feature the work of Gates Cambridge Scholar Alex Vail, researcher-turned-wildlife-cinematographer. Filmed over the […]
Digital twin project finalist for AI Innovation Award
An interactive and immersive digital twin project for real time monitoring of buildings was a finalist for the AI Innovation Award at the UK National AI Awards. The project used state-of-the-art virtual and augmented reality systems and followed a user-centred design process to develop multimodal interaction with an Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality system. Gates […]
Exclusive screening of award-winning film Sugarcane
Gates Cambridge Scholar Emily Kassie will be screening and speaking about her award-winning documentary film Sugarcane in Cambridge next week. Sugarcane won the US Documentary Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year for its investigation into systematic abuse at an Indian residential school in Canada. Emily co-directed and co-produced the film which […]
Study highlights misperceptions about carbon footprint of richest
The personal carbon footprint of the richest people in society is grossly underestimated, both by the rich themselves and by those on middle and lower incomes, no matter which country they come from, according to a new study co-authored by two Gates Cambridge Scholars. At the same time, the study found that both the rich […]
Book celebrates 50th anniversary of Cambridge’s Genizah Research Unit
This October sees the publication of the first illustrated introduction to the unique collections of Cairo Genizah manuscripts at Cambridge University Library, revealing the forgotten stories of Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities at the centre of a millennium of world history. The coffee table book, co-authored by Gates Cambridge Scholar Nick Posegay [2017] and Melonie Schmierer-Lee, […]
25 for 25
The Gates Cambridge Trust will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025 by offering an additional 25 postgraduate scholarships for our Class of 2025. The 25th anniversary celebrations start next year and will kick off with our Impact Prize ceremony in January which will highlight the far-reaching impact of existiung Gates Cambridge Scholars and look […]
