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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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Yang Hu
Twenty-three-year-old Yang Hu is a generation older than his cousin. The 15-year age gap has meant the two have been exposed to a very different upbringing due to the rapid changes in China over the last two decades. Yang’s parents put a lot of emphasis on school. Nowadays, he says, parents are keen not just […]
Paper outlines how solar cells’ efficiency could be improved
Experimental solar cells which could pave the way to more efficient solar panels have been created by a team of researchers, including Gates scholar Niraj Lal [2008]. In a paper for Optics Express, one of the premier journals of the Optics Society of America, Niraj and his co-authors described how solar panels can be made […]
Alumni speak of life “in the real world”
Five Gates alumni have spoken about life “in the real world” at the second annual Gates symposium last week. They included Anne Leone [2006], who did her PhD in Italian on the cultural significance of blood in the Middle Ages as seen via the works of Dante. She spoke about her role as lead singer […]
Scholars to take part in annual dinner exchange
Gates scholars have been invited to take part in what will be an annual dinner exchange with Weidenfeld scholars at Oxford University. Ten scholars from each scholarship programme will take part in the first Weidenfeld-Gates Scholars’ Dinner on 22 May 2011 at Worcester College, Oxford. The dinner includes a tour of Oxford, led by a […]
US Ambassador meets Gates scholars
Gates scholars met the US Ambassador to the UK as part of his visit to Cambridge at the end of April. Ambassador Louis Susman specifically requested to meet with Gates Scholars during his visit to the University on 28 April and spent an hour talking informally with a group of scholars and members of the […]
Gates alumnus wins prestigious architecture award
A Gates alumnus has been awarded a prestigious prize for a journal article on colonial architecture. Alex [George] Bremner, who studied for a PhD in the history and theory of Victorian architecture at Cambridge and was the first ever Gates scholar to be awarded a PhD, was presented with the Founders’ Award prize at the […]
Gates scholars attend New York reception
Twelve Gates scholars attended a reception hosted by the British Consulate General in New York in early May, followed by a visit to see the Tony-nominated Broadway play Arcadia. Gates scholars were among a group of scholars and alumni from the New York area, including Marshall and Fulbright scholars, who attended the event on 3 […]
Amy Zhang
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Gates scholar spurs entrepreneurship in Rwanda
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Gates scholar interviewed on BBC Radio Four
Gates scholar Ivy Wong was interviewed this week on BBC Radio Four about her research into children’s colour preferences and gender identity. Ivy [2009], who is studying for a PhD in Social and Developmental Psychology, was interviewed for a programme called ‘Fighting the Power of Pink’. She said her research was the result of previous […]
