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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
Gates Cambridge Impact Prize launched
Nominations for the Gates Cambridge Impact Prize 2025 open today [15th August] in celebration of the Scholarship’s 25th anniversary celebrations. Five award winners will receive £5,000 and be invited to participate in our 2025 anniversary events to highlight the impact their work has had on society. The prize defines impact as a demonstrable contribution to change in various fields, including the […]
How can we improve healthcare for all?
Three Gates Cambridge Scholars discuss various ways to improve healthcare for all in the final episode of the first series of the So, now what? Podcast. Victor Roy, Johanna Riha and Sabrina Anjara focus on issues such as gender inequities, mental health and access to medicine. They emphasise the importance of investing in women’s health […]
Scholar joins Wigan Athletic Women’s Football team
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been selected to play for Wigan Athletic’s first women’s football team. Sara Merican is one of 15 players signed by the club. The team were accepted into the Championship division of Lancashire Women’s County League following a successful AGM meeting on 17th July. Sara [2022], who did her MPhil in […]
‘We need a global conversation on agriculture and food’
The last few years have seen huge turbulence globally and that has affected every part of our lives, including food and agriculture. In some respects, that turbulence has brought opportunities, says Stella Nordhagen, a Gates Cambridge Scholar who is a Research Lead at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition. Covid, for instance, disrupted global food […]
Scholar appointed to defence research leadership role
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been selected as chief of the Research and Engineering Division of the US Army Engineer and Research Development Center’s (ERDC) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL). Orian Welling’s responsibilities include managing research, development and investigation activities in support of the US Department of Defence, the Department of the Army, […]
How can culture be an agent of peace?
Culture plays a crucial role in peacebuilding and can challenge narratives of conflict and division, according to the latest episode of the Gates Cambridge podcast So, now what? In the episode, hosted by presenter Catherine Galloway, Njoki Wamai [2012], Iryna Shuvalova [2016] and Sara Clarke-Habibi [2011] explore the role of culture in peacebuilding and the […]
The future of warfare
Christopher Kirchhoff [2001] has just co-authored a book which gives an inside look at Unit X, the elite unit within the Pentagon that he and co-author Raj M Shah founded. It brings Silicon Valley’s cutting-edge technology to America’s military. The book Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War, was […]
Olympic opening ceremony harks back to tradition of ‘liquid streets’
The opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games today will see athletes from around the world cross the centre of Paris on boats, navigating the waters of the river Seine, using it and its banks as life-size stages. Although the ceremony is being billed as innovative, it is in fact part of a centuries-old tradition […]
Why AI needs to be inclusive
When Hannah Claus [2024] studied computer science at school she soon realised that she was in a room full of white boys, looking at posters of white men. “I could not see myself in that,” she says. “I realised there were no role models to follow and that I had to become that myself. There […]
New book deal for Gates Cambridge Scholar
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has signed a deal to write a book on Indigenous climate justice. The Longest Night will be published by Atria Books, part of Simon & Schuster, and was selected as the deal of the day by Publishers Marketplace earlier this week. Described as “a stunning exploration of the High North and […]
