2023 NS&B Students

I am a neuroscience PhD student at the Washington State University, Pullman. I study underlying neural substrates for stress, motivated feeding, and reward under the supervision of Dr. Emily Qualls-Creekmore. I combine optogenetics, fiber photometry, pharmacology, and behavioral tests in mice.

I am a PhD student in the Brecht lab at Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Germany. My PhD research focuses on exploring new imaging techniques and 3D digital visualization in neuroscience. Currently, I am working to understand how the intricate musculature of the elephant trunk enables such dexterous and filigree movements.

I am a Ph.D. student in the lab of Daniel O'Connor at Johns Hopkins University studying sensorimotor transformation. My thesis project studies the trigeminal mechanoreceptors on the mouse tongue using genetic labeling, tracing and in vivoelectrophysiological recording methods.  

I am a PhD Student in the Masino lab at the University of Minnesota studying spinal central pattern generators, their development and modulation in larval zebrafish. I have a background as a physical therapist specializing in working with people with neurologic injury and disorder.

I graduated from Marietta College in 2011 with a BS in mathematics and physics, and from Miami University in 2013 with an MS in physics. Following several years where I worked in hospitality, education, and research, I returned to school as a PhD student at Brandeis University, where I currently work in the Marder Lab studying the stomatogastric ganglion of decapod crustaceans.

I am a PhD student in the Lima Lab at the Champalimaud Research, in Lisbon. My project focuses on dissecting the neural circuitry underlying female sexual behavior. More specifically, investigating the neural mechanisms of a hypothalamic population controlling the reproductive cycle dependent regulation of female sexual behavior in mice.

I am a postdoctoral researcher at Newcastle University studying attention processes in insects and comparing them to those known in vertebrates. Before that, I was a JSPS fellow at Tamagawa University where I examined the neuro-mechanisms explaining the flexible expression of the learning flight behavior in bumblebees. This was an expansion of my PhD work, conducted at the University of Exeter, during which I focused on contextual variations of this same learning flight behavior.

I received my BSc in Biology (Zoology) in 2013 at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), Argentina. In 2018 I got my Ph.D. also at UNLP working on the biochemical characterization and toxicity of eggs of gastropod mollusks. I did my first Posdoct as a CONICET postdoctoral fellowship in 2020 at the Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata (CONICET – UNLP), Argentina investigating the evolution, structure, function, and toxic mechanisms of poisonous proteins from freshwater snail eggs. I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Utah under the supervision of Prof. Baldomero Olivera where I am studying neurotoxins from marine snail venoms and their effect on the nervous system.

I am a Ph.D. student at Michigan State University in the Eisthen lab. After dedicating my undergraduate years to studying the behavior of Colombian poison-dart frogs and the neurophysiology associated with toxin resistance in tropical snakes, I recently moved to the United States to pursue a career in sensory neurobiology. My current work seeks to understand the neural mechanisms underlying infrared sensation in snakes. 

I am a PhD student in Cris Niell's lab at the University of Oregon, where I study visual processing in the octopus. I am particularly interested in how cephalopods process polarized light, and how polarization information influences their behavior.

I am a PhD student in Yong-Hui Jiang's lab at Yale University. My project focuses on dissecting the neural mechanisms that modulate transitions between behavioral states related to habituation, arousal, and novelty in a mouse model with a mutation in the Shank2 gene using molecular genetics and circuit manipulation techniques.

I am a PhD student in the Wright lab at New Mexico State University. I am interested in better understanding how chronic stress affects vocal learning using the budgerigar as a model system. Specifically, I am studying how chronic stress experienced at different life stages impacts adult vocal learning and behavior.

I was born and raised in Barcelona, where I got my undergraduate degree in Psychology. I decided to move across the Atlantic to the US (ten years ago this August 2023!) to pursue my athletic goals. After achieving most if not all of them, becoming a world-class high jumper, and obtaining a master’s degree in Exercise Physiology from the University of Akron, OH too, I decided to leave it all and start my scientific career in New York City. I am now a 5th-year PhD student at the City University of New York and looking forward to defending my dissertation soon!

Hi, I'm Macky, a PhD student in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I've always enjoyed studying and learning new things, so pursuing a scientific career was not surprising to me. Specifically, understanding how the brain works has sparked the most curiosity in me. Therefore, I pursued a degree in biological sciences, focusing on physiological and neuroscience research. Currently, I am in the third year of my PhD, working on understanding the effects of acetylcholine and serotonin in the microcircuits of the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus of mice. In my free time, I have been attending acrobatics classes for several years, with a particular passion for aerial silks. However, lately, my biggest obsession has been bouldering, so I try to join any climbing outings that I can.

I’m a Ph.D. student in the Remage-Healey lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, studying the neural mechanisms of auditory learning. My project investigates how the neurons in the auditory forebrain of Zebra Finch rapidly organize and form ensembles to learn a new song and how neuro-estrogen contributes to the neural network of auditory learning. To do this, I use a combination of in-vivo electrophysiology, microdialysis, and behavior.

I am from the Caribbean Island of Martinique and have since lived in multiple countries. One of my first experiences in neuroscience was here at MBL as an undergraduate working in Jennifer Morgan’s lab. I continued conducting research at my undergraduate institution, Amherst College, completing a thesis in the Roche Lab. After college, I started a technician position at CSHL with Lucas Cheadle and discovered that oligodendrocytes precursor cells (OPCs) can engulf synaptic material. In the fall of 2022, I started my PhD at Stanford University in neuroscience and have recently joined Erin Gibson’s lab to continue studying OPCs. Outside of science, I enjoy composing music, doing triathlons, and aquascaping.

I’m entering my third year as a PhD candidate in Dr. Jessica Fox’s lab in the biology department at Case Western University (Cleveland, OH). I have a BSc in entomology from Cornell University, where my research focused on the neurotoxic effects of the saliva of the White-Eyed Assassin Bug. From there, I switched over to the business world for a few years, receiving an MPS in Management from the Johnson School of Business and working as a consultant for a boutique firm out of New York City. Currently, I work on the mechanisms of how flies use proprioception in flight and other non-flight behaviors using optogenetics and high-speed videography to quantify behavioral outputs.

I am finishing my PhD in the neuropsychopharmacology lab at the National Autonomous University of Mexico studying the processes that underlie memory, learning and stress in Octopus maya. My goal is to understand these processes from the molecular and cellular level to behavior analysis. For this, I use three methodological strategies: establishment of behavioral paradigms, pharmacological manipulations, and histological analysis.