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.
Centre College
Fifty-five of the most academically exceptional and socially committed people from across the globe have been selected as Gates Cambridge Scholars after interviews in Cambridge in March. The Scholars will […]
This month Thabo Msibi [2009] will receive his university’s highly prestigious distinguished teacher award for teaching excellence in recognition of his work on diversity. He says the rigorous assessment […]
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has taken part in a remarkable project to help ensure the survival of jaguars in Peru through the use of statistics, mathematical modelling, virtual technology and […]
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has contributed to a new book which highlights 18 proven success stories in global health and aims to show what policies and practice make a major […]
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been awarded the prestigious Early Career Research Award for Energy and Metabolism by the Biochemical Society in recognition of his exceptional work as a molecular […]
Gates Cambridge Scholar Carlos Gonzalez Sierra has been selected as one of 16 members of the youth panel of an international commission on financing global education. Carlos [2015], who is […]
Two social enterprises involving Gates Cambridge Scholars took part in the prestigious Hult Prize regional rounds this weekend, with SimPrints being chosen to go through to the global finals later […]
Maria Pawlowska is keen to promote international scientific collaborations and her new role coordinating the International Research Agendas programme at the Foundation for Polish Science means she is in a key position […]
Three Gates Cambridge Scholars will be speaking about their research on meningitis, links between classical and current debates around sexual trauma and the regeneration of biliary tissue outside the liver […]
A Gates Cambridge Scholar will be performing a piece about feminism in Hip-Hop at an event International Women’s Day event in Cambridge on Wednesday. Aya Waller-Bey’s performance, entitled Pass the […]