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Benjamin Cocanougher

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

Latest News

Kathelijne Koops’ research on chimpanzees grabs more headlines

Kathelijne Koops‘ research on chimpanzees has grabbed more headlines. Kathelijne’s most recent findings suggest that chimpanzees mourn the death of their own much like humans do. The co-authored article (PDF 450k) appeared in the magazine Current Biology and the findings were picked up by the BBC, the New Scientist and Discovery News. Previously, Kathelijne and […]

Srilakshmi Raj (USA)

PhD student Srilakshmi Raj is attempting to look at variation of diabetes and obesity genes among diverse ethnic groups in India. A Gates scholar at the University of Cambridge where she is specialising in Biological Anthropology, Sri has been doing research for the last few months in Karnataka state in southern India. Diabetes is a […]

Niraj Lal (Australia)

Nij has been working with the University’s Community Affairs team on their Rising Stars public engagement programme. In January 2010 he took part in a public event to promote Rising Stars in which four researchers had to talk for a minute about their work to a 120-strong audience who knew nothing about their specialist field. […]

Muhammad Irfan (Pakistan)

Born in Iran, Irfan came to Pakistan when he was three and grew up in Lahore.  His father, who was a postgraduate at Edinburgh and worked in hospitals in London, Surrey and Wales, is a professor of neurology and was principal of a medical college. His mother has a masters in English literature and teaches […]

Thabo Msibi (South Africa)

Under the apartheid system, which ended in 1994 when Thabo was 10, white South African children received good quality schooling, while black children were given what was described as “Bantu education” which prepared them for the unskilled labour market. The legacy remains and the rural provinces like KwaZulu-Natal province present the greatest challenges, with township […]

Hamish Forsyth and Robyn Scott (New Zealand)

The two have just launched Stirr London, a forum bringing together investment bankers, politicians, non-governmental organisations, think tanks and scholars to address the major challenging issues of our time in a way that, says Forsyth, “breaks down the silos between the different groups”.  The first session in March was on climate change and drew 65 […]

Jessamyn Liu (USA)

As a Gates scholar, she met brilliant students from all over the world who had different perspectives on many different things. This opened up her mind to new ways of seeing the world. She has clearly, however, always been the kind of person who likes to be challenged. Her decision to apply to the United […]

Kathelijne Koops (The Netherlands)

She had noticed as early as 2004 that there were some branches with traces of fruit lying below particular trees near where the chimpanzees she was studying were living. “This triggered something in my mind which I decided to follow up for my PhD with systematic monitoring,” says Kathelijne. In March 2008, her team found […]

Gates alumni meet in Berlin despite volcanic travel chaos

Despite the necessary cancellation of the planned main Inaugural European Gates Alumni Meeting due to the pan-European travel disruptions, a small number of Gates Alumni reunited in the German capital for an informal, yet no less stimulating meeting on 16-17 April. Ironically, under that ominous, yet invisible cloud of volcanic ashes, outstanding weather allowed for […]

Gates Cambridge Scholarships – Introductory Film

A 12 minute film introducing the Gates scholarships and life and study in Cambridge.