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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 Scholars to speak at Hay Festival
Three Gates Cambridge Scholars will join a hosto of Cambridge academics who will be speaking on subjects ranging from hate speech, torture and the battle of Waterloo to global health innovation and pandemic flu research at this year’s Hay Festival. The Cambridge Series has been running for seven years at the prestigious Festival and is […]
54 new Gates Cambridge Scholars selected
Fifty-four of the world’s most academically exceptional and socially committed young people from 28 countries have been selected as Gates Cambridge Scholars and will begin their postgraduate courses at the University of Cambridge this October. They include the first Scholars from Guatemala, Albania and the Dominican Republic. Competition for the Scholarships is fierce. The 54 […]
From Cambridge to the NZ Government
Chris Tooley may have done his PhD on establishing an ethics of self-determination, but his interest is far from just academic. Not only has he gone on to put theory into practice, but he has done so at the highest level, as Chief Advisor to Minister of Maori Affairs in the New Zealand Parliament. He […]
Has the pendulum swung too far in favour of patient autonomy?
Doctors who treat patients as consumers and give them a menu of choices without guidance or recommendations over whether they should be resuscitated or not may prolong their suffering, according to a new research study. The “Institutional Culture and Policies’ Influence on Do Not Resuscitate Decision-Making at the End of Life” study by Gates Cambridge […]
The Classical origins of gender
On starting his undergraduate degree in Classics, Nikolas Oktaba became increasingly interested in the formative impact of classics on gender. His professors suggested various texts to read, such as Craig Williams’ Roman Homosexuality which explored Roman ideas of masculinity. In the footnotes was the word transgender. It led Nikolas to further explore the subject. By way of […]
Alumna authors executive order on greenhouse gas emissions
A Gates Cambridge Alumna has authored an executive order issued by President Obama last week which commits the US government to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent over the next decade from 2008 levels. According to the EO, authored by Kate Brandt, the plan will not only tackle the global climate change threat […]
Understanding glioblastoma
Glioblastoma is the most common brain tumour occurring in adults and the most malignant. About 2500 cases are diagnosed in the UK every year. Less than 14% of patients diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour are alive at 10 years. Joseph McAbee’s PhD, which he will start this autumn, will focus on understanding the genetic […]
Gates Cambridge alumnus wins British Council award
A Gates Cambridge alumnus has won the Entrepreneur Award at the prestigious British Council’s Education UK Alumni Awards. Chandler Robinson [2009] was named winner of the award at a ceremony in New York on 21st March. The Education UK Alumni Awards honour the outstanding achievements made by business professionals, entrepreneurs and community leaders who can […]
Provost receives honorary doctorate
The Provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust has been appointed an honorary doctor of the Board of Research at the prestigious Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. Professor Barry Everitt is among four new appointees to the Board and will have his doctorate formally conferred at a ceremony in the Stockholm City Hall on 22nd May 2015. […]
SimPrints wins business award
A social enterprise set up by Gates Cambridge Scholars has been named the Start-up Company of the Year at the Business Weekly Awards in Cambridge. SimPrints, which is based at ideaSpace City, won the top prize at the 25th Anniversary Business Weekly Awards presentation dinner at Queens’ College, Cambridge on Tuesday. The award was accepted […]
