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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
Solving a mathematical problem
Nadja Tschentscher [2010] has always been interested in issues that bring science and the humanities closer together. She believes there is no easy division between the two and that both are vital for approaching the complex issues that scientists like her are investigating. A biology PhD student, she is researching how humans solve complex problems […]
Acoustics archaeologists recreate Renaissance experience
What would the works of great Renaissance composers like Monteverdi, Willaert and Gabrieli have sounded like when they were heard for the first time? Research by Gates alumnus Braxton Boren and Professor Malcolm Longair, a physicist at the University of Cambridge, shows that the acoustics were best on festivals when the churches were packed and […]
Teachers ‘need to be more innovative’
Technology has been the driving force of change in education for too long and teachers need to become more innovative in their use of it, a Gates scholar has told an international conference of educators. Simon Breakspear [2009] gave the closing keynote speech to over 1,300 delegates at the International ULearn conference in New Zealand […]
The business of public health
Toby Norman [2010] is passionate about global health, but he realised after years of working with NGOs that a new approach to public health was necessary to have a real impact on the horrific suffering he saw. So instead of continuing his biology training as a graduate and working on medical issues, he’s focusing on […]
Eastern Europe ‘has not learnt the lessons of capitalism’
Most, if not all, of the promises for a better standard of living and a stronger economic system given at the beginning of the transition process in Eastern Europe have not come true, according to a conference paper published by a Gates scholar. Ivan Rajic gave his paper at a conference in Belgrade in the […]
Memory and the ageing population
Gates scholar Luning Sun [2010] is interested in the way people’s minds work and in developing a test for measuring memory function to help the increasing ageing population. For his PhD he is looking to develop a test for people with various neurological disorders by measuring their memory function. He says the test he will […]
Alumnus scoops award as he launches start-up
A Gates alumnus and entrepreneur has won a prestigious Computer Science award for his thesis which overturns previous assumptions about the discipline and helps to create a foundation for better software and hardware in the future. Daniel Greenfield [2005] was awarded the 2011 Conference of Professors and Heads of Computing Distinguished Dissertation competition. The prize […]
Jaya Savige invited to Buckingham Palace
Gates scholar Jaya Savige was invited to meet the Queen at an official reception earlier this month ahead of an official royal visit to Australia this week. Jaya [2008], an award-winning poet who is studying for a PhD in English, also met the Duke of Edinburgh, spoke to Prince Edward and discussed the poetic concept […]
History prize for Gates alumnus
A Gates alumnus has been awarded two prestigious prizes for his doctoral dissertation on Germany’s policy towards Islam during the 1940s. Dr David Motadel [2006], who is a Research Fellow in History at Gonville and Caius College, was awarded the 2011 Prize of the German Historical Institute. The Prize is awarded annually for an outstanding […]
Behind the scenes at Cambridge Festival of Ideas
The Cambridge Festival of Ideas, a celebration of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, launches today and a Gates scholar has been working behind the scenes to help it all run smoothly. Jessica Cooney [2009], who is studying for a PhD in Archaeology, got involved with the Festival, which runs from 19 to 30 October […]
