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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
Important role for citizen science
Citizen science could play an important role in ensuring museum collections are up to date and aiding biological research, according to a new study. The study, Citizen Science as a Tool for Augmenting Museum Collection Data from Urban Areas, is published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Lead author is Gates Cambridge Scholar […]
Simprints wins $2M innovation prize
Tech start-up Simprints has won a $2M innovation prize to prevent maternal and child deaths in the hardest-to-reach regions of the world. Simprints was co-founded by Gates Cambridge Scholars Daniel Storisteanu [2012], Toby Norman [2011] and Alexandra Grigore [2012] alongside Tristram Norman. A nonprofit tech company, it builds open source software and biometric hardware to […]
Education for change
Norman Wray has been at the centre of Ecuador’s political events for the last decade or more and stood as a candidate in the presidential elections in 2013. After years of political tumult, he now wants to take some time to think more deeply about the best way of achieving the goals that he has […]
Scholar to be Scientific Director of major study
A Gates Cambridge scholar will be Scientific Director of an £8m four-year programme to address public health and environmental risks in Bangladesh. Dr Rajiv Chowdhury will be joint Principal Investigator on CAPABLE [Cambridge Programme to Assist Bangladesh in LIfestyle and Environmental risk reduction], a programme which will see researchers from the UK and developing countries […]
How mothers affect their daughters’ education
Aliya Khalid [2015] was born in Peshawar in North West Pakistan, a region which borders Afghanistan and which has suffered many suicide bombings and terrorist attacks. Although she doesn’t come from the tribal areas along the border, Aliya says the general mindset in the region has been affected by the presence of the Taliban and groups […]
Checking the facts in an era of fake news
When he started doing work on an automated fact checking system Andreas Vlachos did not anticipate the kind of publicity he was going to generate. But the advent of Brexit and Trump and the focus on fake news has brought him and the start-up he co-founded a lot of media attention, including a recent feature […]
Chemical innovation
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been named a finalist in the prestigious 2017 Reaxys PhD Prize for Chemistry. Derrick Roberts [2012] was among 45 scientists selected for the Prize which recognises young chemists conducting original and innovative research in organic, organometallic and inorganic chemistry.Some 550 chemists from around the globe applied from the prize. Derrick’s […]
Exploring a new frontier in planetary discovery
An international team of astronomers, led by University of Cambridge researchers, discovered a system of seven potentially habitable planets orbiting a star 39 light years away earlier this year. It was the latest in a string of remarkable recent discoveries of planets outside our own universe which may lead to us finding out sooner rather […]
Dr Blog
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has set up a blog for research students which provides a range of advice and insight on different issues relating to doctoral research and educational inquiry. PhD student Stine Ravnå founded the blog on behalf of the Faculty of Education Research Students’ Association (FERSA). As the academic officer of FERSA, she […]
International human rights law under the spotlight
Marina Velickovic will become the first Gates Cambridge Scholar from Bosnia and Herzegovina when she begins her PhD in Law in the autumn. Marina’s research will build on her work on international criminal law and human rights in the context of the former Yugoslavia. She will analyse the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as […]
