The Mary S.EskineAward was created in honor of a former professor at Boston University who died from breast cancer in 2007 for her work in neuroscience and position as the Director of Undergraduate Research at Boston University. The award is given to professors nominated by their students for advocating undergraduate research and mentoring.

I have twoPhD students and 13 undergraduatestudents in my lab and,unknown to me, they and former students nominated me for this award, Dr. Markus said.

Dr. Markus research focuses on the development of memories using rats. His team monitorsthe rats brain cells, or neurons, while at restand while performing tasks such as running a maze. This data comes from the hippocampus, a region of the brain that is important for memory and spatial awareness.

Thomas Shao, an eighth-semester physiology and neurobiology major who does research with Dr. Markus, summarizes the research as the following, How do our experiences turn into a memory, what are the [neuronal] processes that go into observational learningand how do the different parts of the brain interact in order for us to perform spatial and motorresponses?

Thumbnail photo courtesy of Markus Lab at the University of Connecticut website.

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UConn Professor Wins Award For Scholarship and Mentoring - UConn Daily Campus