About my current job
My goal is to understand the mechanisms of plasticity in the human brain by linking changes in function to changes in neuroanatomical structure, with a particular focus on the effects of early sensory loss and prosthetic vision. If humans become blind early in life, they only regain very limited ability to make use of that sense if it is ever restored in adulthood and there is "cross-modal plasticity" - colonisation of the brain regions that normally serve the missing sense by remaining senses. These huge changes in the functional role of deprived cortical areas are accompanied by dramatic changes in neuroanatomy and neurochemistry. All these factors have implications for the ability to restore sight using retinal prostheses.
Something important I learned during my time at EP
I learned that there is such a thing as a stupid question - I asked lots of stupid questions as an undergraduate. However, asking a stupid question doesn't make you stupid.
How did my education influence my career path?
I think the rigour of Oxford (both the professors, and my friends - endless discussions over coffee) made me a 'free-speech fundamentalist'. That is the reason I love academia - universities are specifically designed to be places where any idea (however weird or controversial) can be explored and challenged in a non-judgmental (except the quality of your reasoning ...) way. A free market place of ideas. I live in the States, where this ideal of academe is becoming a little controversial. But I'm still a believer.
Did you have a favourite tutor/lecturer/prof, and how did they inspire you?
Bruce Henning was one of those lecturers who always taught at a level that was quite a lot more difficult than was comfortable. I remember one tutorial, "So, what you are saying is that pretty much everything in my essay is both wrong AND confused" "Mmm. Yes." Once, after a particularly garbled essay, I burst into tears. Bruce passed me a Kleenex and then, with no pause, continued explaining just how confused I was. I would have walked over hot coals for him. He made me a much better scientist.
With the benefit of hindsight, do you have any advice you'd give your younger self?
Not to worry so much. Exams, friendships, awkward things I said. So much time spent worrying about things I didn't even remember 5 years later.
