Presented By: Rachel Wilson, PhD
Speaker Biography: Rachel Wilson, Ph.D., earned an A.B. in chemistry from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco. She did postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology before joining the faculty in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School in 2004, where she is now the Martin Family Professor of Basic Research in the Field of Neurobiology, as well as an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a MacArthur Foundation fellow, and the first Blavatnik National Laureate in Life Sciences. Dr. Wilson studies the neural mechanisms of sensorimotor integration and navigation in Drosophila. Most of the ~200,000 neurons in the fly brain are uniquely identifiable, digitally searchable, and genetically-addressable. Many neural connections are highly stereotyped, and a partial connectome has recently become available; while a full connectome is on the horizon. Using these tools, Dr. Wilson's lab is currently working to understand: 1. how descending signals from the brain control navigation paths; 2. how spatial maps are integrated with internal goals to produce locomotor commands; 3. how the brain's spatial maps reorganize around a new environment, using multisensory cues; and 4. how map-guided navigation is seamlessly integrated with other navigational strategies.
Webinar: Stories About Science: Narrative Methods in Science Communication and Correcting Misinformation
