Liz C
- Research Program Mentor

PhD candidate at University of California San Diego (UCSD)

Expertise

neuroscience (behavior, social behavior, computational neuroscience, hypothalamus, development), mental health

Bio

My name is Liz, and I am a third year graduate (PhD) student at University of California, San Diego. I am interested in researching the cells and circuits underlying social behaviors (e.g. aggression, parental behavior) in the brain in animal models. I have previously done research on stress/anxiety behaviors and vision. I am originally from Connecticut, and in my free time, I enjoy distance running, cooking, baking, and surfing!

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

High School Health Class Curriculum on Brain Health and Illness

In this project, a student would design a segment of a high school health class curriculum to educate students on brain health and illness. This would include teaching material, class activities, and assessment methods.

Research Paper Exploring the Circuit-Level Control of a Behavior or Psychiatric Disease

Existing research describes many regions of the brain involved in various behaviors and psychiatric diseases (e.g. aggression, feeding, foraging, anxiety, depression, PTSD, etc.). In this project, a student would summarize some of these brain regions and hypothesize how they may interconnect to drive behavior or disease.

Coding skills

R, Python

Teaching experience

I designed and taught an undergraduate laboratory course in synthetic biology under the supervision of a faculty advisor for three years in undergrad. Additionally, I worked as a physics and math tutor for a year.

Credentials

Work experience

(Alexander) Jackson Lab at University of Connecticut (2018 - 2021)

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Ermentrout Lab at University of Pittsburgh (2020 - 2020)

Undergraduate Program in Neural Computation Fellow

Picciotto Lab at Yale University (2017 - 2017)

Summer Student

Bambah-Mukku Lab at UCSD (2022 - Current)

Graduate Student

Education

University of Connecticut

BSE Bachelor of Science in Engineering (2021)

Engineering Physics (Physics and Electrical Engineering)

University of California San Diego (UCSD)

BS Bachelor of Science

Neurosciences