About my current job
I run a research group and teach graduate and undergraduate students. Our research focuses on the development and function of cortical and basal ganglia circuits. We are interested in how early life experience of adversity and puberty affect circuit function.
How did my education influence my career path?
My summer working with then postdoc Dave Bannerman and Professor Susan Iversen led me to discover my career path. I was able to connect my intellectual interests in learning and plasticity with my practical knowledge of training animals. It was also exciting and motivating to be a part of an experiment from its starting point, when we did not know what outcomes and answers would be.
Fond memories of my time at EP
I used to follow researchers around and ask what they were doing. One showed me an orderly series of glass boxes of alcohol in different shades of a deep purple. I learned these were used to rinse brain sections after they were stained with cresyl violet. Others, including Rob Deacon, Juan Canales and Ben Yee, let me sit and watch them perform experiments.
Did you have a favourite tutor/lecturer/prof, and how did they inspire you?
Professor Iversen gave riveting lectures in pinstripe suits. I clearly remember her first lecture about dopamine, something I still study today. Professor Bill Hamilton and Professor Vincent Walsh were willing to meet up and talk about science one-to-one. They were willing to entertain my ideas and to take them seriously.
