BrainWaves: The Neuroscience Graduate Program Newsletter

Meet Your New SOMA President Elects!

AUTHOR: Kathryn Reynolds

Hey Neuroscience Graduate Program! We’re Kathryn and Saurabh, and we’re very excited to be your new SOMA President Elects!

We are both in our 3rd year of PhD studies and consequently, some of you might not know us very well. We’d like to give you a small ice breaker introduction...




Kathryn Reynolds: My research, under the supervision of Dr. Laurie Doering and Dr. Angela Scott, investigates astrocyte and neuronal dysregulations in the purinergic signaling pathway which contribute to Fragile X Syndrome. Prior to my PhD, I spent 6 years at the University of Guelph, completing my BSc as well as my MSc in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Collaborative Neuroscience. I am passionate about scientific communication, and I volunteer as a reviewer with the Health Science Inquiry graduate student journal while also contributing articles to BrainWaves. Outside of the lab, I’m a shutterbug - I’m often found exploring rural Ontario in my VW Beetle while pursuing landscape and macro photography.





Saurabh Shaw: I come from a biomedical engineering background and am currently working with Dr. Sue Becker to develop better diagnostic and prognostic tools for psychopathologies such as PTSD. I love designing and building devices, especially when they can interact with the brain. Consequently, I co-founded and run a group for neurotechnology enthusiasts, called NeurotechHA. We organize hackathons and networking events with neuroscience-oriented companies. I have been at McMaster for all of my undergraduate and graduate career and have lived in Hamilton for over 9 years. When not in the lab or answering emails, I am an avid traveler and foodie.

In addition to conducting exciting neuroscience research, we both love to socialize over food, games, and activities. We strongly believe that friendships and extracurricular activities greatly enhance the graduate student experience. As members of an interdisciplinary program, we understand that it can be hard to maintain meaningful connections with colleagues working across different campuses. That’s why we’re so excited to be joining Ashley and Gabriella as a part of the SOMA team - we can’t wait to organize events which will bring our program even closer together. We’d also like to thank Gésine for all her hard work as she steps down from her role as SOMA Past President.

 

In our next two years with SOMA, we hope to bring you a variety of casual hangouts, athletics, work nights, and fun field trips. Stay tuned for more details! Of course, none of these events are possible without your participation. We’re always open to event suggestions, so get in touch, and above all, come join us!!

For more information about SOMA, check out www.somamcmaster.ca, email us at soma@mcmaster.ca, or follow us on social media:

 

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