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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 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 […]
Alumna to head immigration organisation
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been named executive director of an organisation focused on raising funds to finance existing legal services for undocumented individuals with no criminal background in the US. Wendi Adelson has been appointed head of the Immigration Partnership & Coalition (IMPAC) Fund. Prior to IMPAC, Adelson served as a law clerk to the […]
Study reveals mysterious equality with which grains pack it in
At the moment they come together, the individual grains in materials like sand and snow appear to have exactly the same probability of combining into any one of their many billions of possible arrangements, researchers have shown. The finding, by an international team of academics at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Brandeis University in […]
Success for farming start-up
A start-up company which helps sub-Saharan farmers to sell their goods has won a major prize. Farming Data, which was set up by three PhD students, including two Gates Cambridge Scholars, won the GROW agri-tech business plan competition which includes a cash prize and access to expert support, advice and lab space. It operates a mobile […]
