The field of Neuroscience seeks to understand the organization and function of nerve cells and nervous systems, as well as the organismal behaviors they produce, including human cognition.
Neuroscience
Vikas Bhandawat
Assistant Professor of Biology
THE GOAL: A major goal in neuroscience is to understand how neural circuits represent sensory information or guide behavior. Because of the complexity of our nervous system it is often difficult to pinpoint the neurons that participate in a given task. Our overall aim is to map out “complete... Full Profile »
Stephen Nowicki
Professor of Biology
Our lab studies animal communication and sexual selection from an integrative perspective that includes a wide range of behavioral ecological, neuroethological, developmental, genetic, and evolutionary approaches. Birds are our most common model system, but we also have worked with insects, spiders... Full Profile »
Nina Tang Sherwood
Associate Professor of the Practice in the Department of Biology
We use Drosophila melanogaster as a model to understand nervous system development and function. A genetic screen for molecules important to these processes identified the fly ortholog of the spastin gene, which when mutated in humans leads to a progressive neurodegenerative disease called... Full Profile »
Pelin Cayirlioglu Volkan
Assistant Professor of Biology
The long-term goal in the lab is to understand the developmental processes that establish the basic organizational and functional principles of the neuronal circuits in the brain. We investigate how the neuronal circuits assemble, functionally mature, remodel in developmental and evolutionary time... Full Profile »