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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
Scholar appointed co-director of human rights centre
Gates Cambridge Scholar Ella McPherson has been appointed Co-Director of the Centre of Governance and Human Rights at the University of Cambridge. Ella is Lecturer in the Sociology of New Media and Digital Technology in the Department of Sociology at Cambridge, and a Fellow at Queen’s College, Cambridge. She has been a long-time Research Associate […]
Scholars tell their stories
Four Gates Cambridge Scholars will tell their stories of life in the field at an event on 19th October. The Scholar Stories event will cover archaeology from the Mediterranean to Central America, the role of technology in education, research on sex workers in Latin America and what our relations with dogs tell us about ourselves. […]
A grander mission
Shefali Mehta has not had a conventional career path and has straddled different academic disciplines. Now working as a freelance consultant on conservation and agriculture issues, she says Gates Cambridge and its mission to improve the lives of others marked a turning point in her career, forcing her to re-evaluate what she really wanted and […]
Power and vision
A Gates Cambridge Scholar and fellow PhD students have won funding for a graduate research group on the politics of vision, perception, memory and history, which will address issues of media representation, power and responsibility. Jessica Fernandez de Lara Harada [2016] was one of six graduate students who applied for funding from the University of Cambridge’s Centre […]
Trailblazing woman in Archaeology
How do human populations adapt to environmental change? One answer is to look at ancient civilisations who have undergone similar change. Suzanne Pilaar Birch’s research uses oxygen isotopes to investigate animal and human migration patterns in ancient times. The isotopes vary with factors such as temperature and are absorbed into animals’ teeth. “By drilling the teeth […]
Top prize for play that incorporates academic research
A Gates Cambridge Scholar whose research contributed to a theatre production has seen the play that she worked on and helped to direct scoop a top theatre prize in Norway. Ragnhild Freng Dale was the researcher and assistant director on The Trial of the Century, a play which deals with the upcoming court case over the 23rd […]
Protect water supplies from storm damage
Clean water matters. My father manages a small water treatment system on the Southeast coast of Florida which provides water to fewer than 1,000 customers. I have seen first hand how, in an emergency, the response services often fail to coordinate with smaller systems like his. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Irma I worked […]
Call to tackle huge rise in use of antimicrobials on animals
The amount of antimicrobials given to animals destined for human consumption is expected to rise by a staggering 52% and reach 200,000 tonnes by 2030 unless policies are implemented to limit their use, according to new research co-authored by a Gates Cambridge Scholar. Researchers, from ETH Zürich, Princeton, and the University of Cambridge, conducted the […]
From literature student to author
Amanda Dennis has grown up immersed in literature. After years of studying the subject and teaching courses in comparative literature, she has now written her first novel and is working on a second. Her first novel, The Trace, incorporates some of the research from her time at the University of Cambridge and her other studies […]
A celebration of ideas and debate
Two Gates Cambridge Scholars are taking part in this year’s Cambridge Festival of Ideas. Asiya Islam and Surabhi Ranganathan are speaking at the Festival, which celebrates the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. It runs from 16th to 29th October and has a programme of over 200 events, including talks, debates, exhibitions, film and theatre performances. […]
