Kim did her undergraduate work in Physiology at McGill University. She continued in the McGill physiology department for her Master’s project, where she investigated the mechanisms of synaptic strengthening in fruit flies using in-vivo 2-P microscopy and intracellular electrophysiology. She began her PhD at BU in 2015 and is now focusing on how acetylcholine modulates cortical computations and plasticity in rodents.

Liz is the lab’s resident Nebraskan. She graduated from MIT with a degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences in 2015. As an undergraduate in Mark Bear’s lab, Liz tested mGluR-inhibiting drugs in a mouse model of Rett syndrome. In the Gavornik Lab she has worn many hats and is currently using electrophysiology, both LFP and single unit recordings, to explore the underlying mechanisms of sequence learning. In the fall (2017), Liz will start a PhD program in computational neuroscience at the University of Chicago.

Andrew is an undergraduate majoring in Neuroscience at Boston University. Originally from San Francisco, he started living abroad since he was 4 but ended up moving to Boston in 2015 to attend BU. He speaks 4 languages, is the president of the BU German Culture Club and is passionate about going to medical school in the future. In his free time, he loves to play basketball and prank his friends with his twin brother, who, despite not being identical, looks very similar.

Sara Kornfeld Simpson is a dual degree junior with a triple major in Neuroscience, Flute and Oboe Performance. She is the Harry Hung Sheng Chou Trustee Scholar and a Davidson Fellow Laureate. Sara served as vice president of Nu Rho Psi, BU's Neuroscience Honor Society, and as a mentor for freshmen Trustee Scholars and Music Performance majors. She has published in two BU journals, The Nerve and the WR: Journal of the CAS Writing Program. Her summer 2016 research in neuroscience in The Scripps Research Institute REU program won a poster presentation award. This spring, she presented this poster at the Association for Chemoreception Sciences 39th Annual Conference, and was named a finalist for the AChemS Undergraduate Research Award. Last fall, Sara received BU’s Provost’s Scholars Award for Academic Exploration in the First Two Years, and she is currently receiving the Mary Erskine Undergraduate Research Award from BU’s UROP program to fund her study of learning and memory in the Gavornik Lab. In her free time, Sara enjoys attending the BSO, exploring Boston on foot, and performing her music for retirement communities.

Christina is an undergraduate student majoring in neurobiology. She is from Ossining, New York, and originally came to Boston University to study film and television. During her sophomore year, she changed her major after discovering her love for neurobiology. She hopes to someday pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience, with a particular interest in research related to neurodegenerative diseases. For the summer of 2017, she will continue working in the Gavornik Lab as a member of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. Christina also enjoys reading, playing tennis, and taking walks on the esplanade in her spare time.

Jess is an undergraduate student studying Psychology. Born and raised in Boston, she came to BU as a pre-dental student and has since become a certified dental assistant. She hopes to travel somewhere warmer for a graduate program in mental health counseling or social work. During her free time, she volunteers with Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed community service fraternity, which allows her to interact with a variety of at-risk populations. She likes to write short stories and watches a new movie every couple of weeks.

Aly Reynolds is a junior at Boston University majoring in neuroscience and psychology. She's from Ann Arbor, MI, and she moved to Boston in 2015. In the future, she hopes to attend PA school. When she's not in class, Aly likes to play guitar, read nonfiction books and satire articles on the internet, and crochet.

Neoreet Braha is a double major in Neuroscience and Psychology. She has been fascinated by human behavior and neuroscience since middle school. Currently, she is training with the Medical Career Exploration Volunteer Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Last summer, she interned at the Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv, Israel researching memory and cognition as related to sleep. She has enjoyed years of volunteering with children and elderly in different contexts, and some of her favorite pastime activities are photography and jigsaw puzzle assembly.

Brielle Albelli is an undergraduate at Boston University pursuing a major in Neuroscience and a minor in Computer Science. She came to BU as a pre-med Neuroscience major, but discovered a love for coding and hopes to develop her coding skills and seek a career in computational neuroscience. She’s from Old Tappan, New Jersey, and in her free time she enjoys drawing, painting, coding, and trying to find a decent bagel in Boston (its harder than it sounds, and so are the bagels).

Patrick was born and raised in Boston. He spent the last year and a half at McGill University pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and is now taking time off to explore his interests and find a new direction in his life.

Shouhui (Sarah) Xin is an undergraduate student majoring in neurobiology. She grew up in China and attended high school in Atlanta. She was interested in drawing, but later discovered an interest in biology during high school. In college, she found the study of the brain fascinating and joined the Gavornik lab to learn more about the practical application of neuroscience. Sarah's favorite drink is bubble tea and she has been a loyal customer (possible addict) to Kung Fu Tea. Her favorite kind is either the Taro Milk Tea or the original milk tea.

Rachel attended Rutgers University before joining Mark Bear's Lab to study the role of microglia in synaptic plasticity. After completing her PhD in 2016, she joined the Gavornik Lab and uses in vivo electrophysiology and two-photon microscopy to investigate how the primary visual system encodes sequences at the circuit and cellular level. She is as adept at surgery as she is at running her mouth. When she's not in the lab, she is planting things, watching television, or walking around Cambridge with her friends.

Sue mostly grew up in China and moved to Boston for her PhD in Florian Engert's lab at Harvard University. There she worked on larval zebrafish phototaxis behavior, some two-photon microscopy, and large-scale analysis of whole-brain light-sheet data at single-cell resolution. After graduating in 2016, she also spent a year working on data analysis with Talia Konkle at the Harvard Vision Sciences lab. Outside the lab, she enjoys some of the more civil moments with her toddler girl, as well as some biking, planting and reading here and there.

Seoyoung (Audrey) Kim is an undergraduate at Boston University. She is majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and planning to minor in Psychology. She was born in South Korea, but moved to the US when she was five years old. She lived in Southern California ever since until she began to attend Boston University. Some of her passions include teaching, volunteering and petting cats (dogs are acceptable as well). In her free time, she likes to watch TV shows, practice long boarding, teach herself programming and look for good cheese plates in Boston.

Noelle Wojciechowski is an undergraduate majoring in neuroscience at Boston University. Noelle became fascinated by the brain at an early age as she grew up with a father with multiple sclerosis. Currently, she is interested in how the brain can learn and change, and hopes to combine research and medicine to discover new treatments and therapies for neurological disorders. In her free time, Noelle enjoys painting and baking any recipe she comes across on the Great British Bake Off.

Francesca is an undergraduate majoring in Philosophy and Neuroscience, and minoring in Psychology at Boston University. Born and raised in Boston, she insists upon drinking iced coffee in the winter, and lamenting the travesty that is Boston driving. Francesca first became interested in neuroscience after reading Oliver Sacks’ book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and hopes to further pursue research on the intersection of neuroscience and storytelling. In her free time, she enjoys photography, singing, and psychoanalyzing her dog.

Anthony is an undergraduate student at Boston University studying Neurobiology. He grew up in Dallas, Pennsylvania and plans to attend medical school in the future. He loves traveling, sports, and exploring Boston. His latest endeavors are teaching himself to skateboard and dabbling in herpetology.

Jaskaran (Jay) Singh is a sophomore at Boston University majoring in Neuroscience on the Pre-Medical track. Jay is very interested in the mechanisms of synaptic plasticity and learning, as well as neurodegenerative disorders. He hopes to one day become a neurologist in the Boston area, whilst also further researching all aspects of the brain. Jay is a member of the Boston University Men’s Club Basketball Team as well as the President of NeuroTechXBU.

Jack grew up in Venice, California and moved to Massachusetts in 2020 to attend Boston University. Before graduating in May 2022, He majored in Neuroscience and Chemistry, his main research focuses are on understanding the brain from the perspective of biochemical reactions and as a biological computational machine.

Byron graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2011 with degrees in both Physics and Spanish. He then moved to Spain for two years, where he taught English. Presently, Byron is a PhD student in BU's Graduate Program for Neuroscience, doing a specialization in Computational Neuroscience (focus in data analysis and statistics). His research interests include self-organization within the nervous system, and the plasticity mechanisms that govern development and learning. Byron has now moved to the Datta Lab at Harvard Medical School. We wish him the best in all his further ventures.