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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
From an internet cafe to software development
Lawrence Owusu’s biggest disappointment became his greatest opportunity. After being told he had not been accepted onto an architecture course in Ghana, he spent a year working at an internet cafe where he developed a passion for computer science. That passion took him to Cambridge where he did his master’s and was the seed of […]
Decolonising Australia
A leading Australian aboriginal community activist will be speaking about decolonisation of Australia at an event co-organised by a Gates Cambridge Scholar and the Critical Theory & Practice Seminar Series at the end of the month. Roxley Foley [pictured] is Firekeeper of Canberra’s Aboriginal Tent Embassy which represents the political rights of Aboriginal Australians. His […]
The Pearl Gate
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has contributed to a new book of poetry on one of Finland’s foremost poets. Sofia Singler [2016] has both designed and written a chapter in the book on Lassi Nummi’s poetry entited Liekkiportti: Esseitä Lassi Nummen Tuotannosta (“The Pearl Gate: Essays on the Poetry of Lassi Nummi”). Nummi, who died in 2012, […]
Democratic challenge for REDD+
The attempt by California to incorporate international forest carbon credits into its climate mitigation strategy is described in the chapter of an important new book on climate change mitigation strategies and carbon offsets, published this week. The chapter, co-authored by Gates Cambridge Scholar Libby Blanchard and her PhD supervisor Dr Bhaskar Vira, appears in the […]
Tech pioneer
Ben Cole developed an early interest in computers. He started computer programming at the age of seven and by eight was helping local businesses with their computers. It’s an interest that has seen him work at some of the top technology companies, such as Facebook, become a Google “technology pioneer” in Africa and launch various […]
Scholar wins prestigious biology prize
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been awarded the most prestigious prize for students at the University of Cambridge’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Suyang Zhang, who is doing a PhD in Biological Sciences, has been awarded the Laboratory’s Max Perutz Student Prize which is named after the Nobel Laureate. The Prize is awarded annually for outstanding […]
Innovation on two continents
A UK and South African-based start-up founded by a Gates Cambridge Scholar has won Facebook’s top award for innovation in education in Africa. Hyperion Development, a social enterprise founded and directed by Riaz Moola while he was an undergraduate and developed during his master’s at the University of Cambridge, has taken the $230,000 prize for […]
From cholera transmission to Chavez’s Venezuela
Four Gates Cambridge Scholars will give talks on research ranging from cholera transmission and the cell surface structure of bacteria to drug addition and racial politics in Venezuela at an internal symposium next week. The Gates Cambridge internal symposium takes place on 1st November. The speakers are: – Emma Glennon [2016], who is doing a […]
The quest for consciousness
What is the process involved in losing consciousness in a natural way? In other words, what happens when you fall asleep every night? How can we be alert one minute and then suffer brain fade the next? These are just some of the questions being addressed by Sridhar Jagannathan’s research into the hugely complex realm […]
Scholar wins major Australian award
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has received this year’s $50,000 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year in Australia. Richard Payne [2002] was presented with the prize by the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at a dinner in the Great Hall at Parliament House, Canberra, this week. He is one of seven prize winners for […]
