Speaker

Dr. Stowers obtained her PhD at Harvard University in 1997. She then joined Catherine Dulac’s lab as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Post-doctoral Fellow to undertake the study of how the brain determines fundamental behavior and emotion. During this training she completed experiments identifying a new subset of odor sensing neurons that detect cues that promote social behavior. In 2002 she began independent work at Scripps Research where she remains today as a Professor of Neuroscience. Her lab aims to understand basic rules of how the brain works to survey both the environment and the immediate needs of your body to decide on how to appropriately behave. The state of one’s own body colors many aspects of brain function. If one is stressed, in pain, or relaxed the ability to solve math problems, interact with others, or perform a skill can be altered in a myriad of outcomes. Focusing on how internal state drives behavioral decision-making is expected to reveal general principles of how the brain works in general. She has been a finalist for the Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology; and named a Pew Scholar and Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar in Neuroscience.

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