Congratulations to Vanderbilt Kennedy Center's 2013 Science Day award winners

Updated on 1/21/2013 4:03:39 PM.

Source: Vanderbilt Kennedy Center

By: Elizabeth Turner

More than 120 undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and staff presented posters in Clinical, Behavioral, and Intervention Research, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, and Systems Neuroscience at the sixth annual Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Science Day, held Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013, at Vanderbilt University's Student Life Center. More than 200 people attended the day-long event.

Winners and honorable mentions in both graduate and post-doctoral levels have been announced by each of the three themes' theme chairs, as well as by a separate undergraduate presenters' judge. Winners will receive a $250 award, and honorable mention recipients will receive a $100 award. The VKC will soon reach out to winners to begin the award process.

2013 VKC Science Day Research Poster Awards

Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

• Graduate Award Winner—Megan Fettig
  Mentor—Danny Winder, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, and Mouse Behavioral Phenotyping Faculty Coordinator, Basic Neuroscience Services Core
  Stress and noradrenergic modulation of extended amygdala projecting dopamine neurons of the rostral linear nucleus
• Honorable Mention--Daniel Bermingham
  Mentor--Randy Blakley, Ph.D., Allan D. Bass Professor of Pharmacology, Professor of Psychiatry, Director, Vanderbilt/NIMH Silvio O. Conte Center for Basic Neuroscience Research, and Neurochemistry Faculty Coordinator, Basic Neuroscience Services Core
  Forward Genetic Screen in C. elegans Reveals a Novel Presynaptic Regulator of Dopamine Signaling

• Postdoctoral Award Winner—Brian Shonesy
  Mentor—Roger Colbran, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
  CaMKII is a novel diacylglycerol lipase-alpha interacting protein that regulates striatal endocannabinoid signaling
• Honorable Mention--Johanna C. Gandy
  Mentor--Roger Colbran, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
  Regulation of striatal CaMKII activity by extracellular calcium influx

Clinical, Behavioral, and Intervention Research

• Graduate Award Winner--Sarah Wiesen
  Mentor--Amy Needham, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology
  Action-specific experience affects young infants' reaching
• Honorable Mention--Colleen Russo
  Mentor--Georgene Troseth, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology
  Be Kind to One Another: A Historical Content Analysis of Verbal Interactions in Children's Television

• Postdoctoral Award Winner--Katherine Gotham
  Mentor--Zachary Warren, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Director, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD), and Director, Autism Clinical Services
  Psychosocial Predictors of Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents and Adults with ASD
• Honorable Mention--Reyna Gordon
  Mentors--Paul Yoder, Ph.D., Professor of Special Education; and Sasha Key, Ph.D., Research Associate Professor of Hearing and Speech Sciences and Director, Psychophysiology Lab
  Have they got rhythm? An EEG and behavioral approach to musical rhythm and language skills in children

Systems Neuroscience

• Graduate Award Winner--Suzanne Avery
  Mentor--Jennifer Blackford, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
  Anatomical connectivity of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis in humans
• Honorable Mention--Dipanwita Ghose
  Mentor--Mark T. Wallace, Ph.D., Professor of Hearing & Speech Sciences,Psychiatry, Psychology, Director, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, and Associate Director, Vanderbilt Conte Center for Neuroscience Research
  Superficial layers of the superior colliculus: Visual or multisensory?

• Postdoctoral Award Winner--Ryan A. Stevenson
  Mentor--Mark T. Wallace, Ph.D., Professor of Hearing & Speech Sciences,Psychiatry, Psychology, Director, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, and Associate Director, Vanderbilt Conte Center for Neuroscience Research
  Speech-specific deficits in posterior superior temporal sulcus activation during audiovisual speech integration in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Undergraduate Poster Presenters

• First Place--Samuel Friedman
  Mentor--Kendal Broadie, Ph.D., Stevenson Professor of Neurobiology and Professor of Biological Sciences, Pharmacology, and Cell & Developmental Biology
  Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein Regulates Trans-Synaptic Signaling
• Honorable Mention--Michael Geoghegan
  Mentor--Sohee Park, Ph.D., Gertrude Conaway Professor of Psychology and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
  Creativity in the psychosis-spectrum; Method in madness

Congratulations to all of our Science Day award winners!