Jared M. Roberts Memorial Graduate Student Award

Purpose and Criteria: The Jared M. Roberts Memorial Travel Award was set up in 2017 by friends, family members, and colleagues to honor the contributions of Jared M. Roberts, who conducted his graduate studies at the CNLM. The award will be presented to an outstanding graduate student in neuroscience to assist them in attending the annual Winter Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Meeting at Park City, UT. The student must prepare an abstract and plan on presenting their research at the Park City meeting. The purpose of the award is to defray the student’s registration and travel costs to the meeting.

Eligibility: Must be a graduate student who is in the laboratory of a CNLM Fellow on the UCI campus.

Awards available: 2 or more $1,000 awards (including match by Graduate Division)

Requirements: CV/resume (max 2 pages), unofficial transcript, and personal statement addressing research accomplishments, experience, and how the student will benefit from travel and presenting at Park City (500 words)

2025

Abigail Flores
(Advisor: Dr. Gyorgy Lur)

"What happens in adolescence, doesn't stay in adolescence"

Matthew Sandoval
(Advisor: Dr. Javier Diaz Alonso)

"Synaptic Do's and Don'ts: How adhesion molecules make meaningful brain connections"

2024

Vinicius (Vini) Nunes Duarte

(Advisor: Dr. Katherine Thompson-Peer)
"Dendrite regeneration in flies and beyond"

Neda Razi Morakabati

(Advisor: Dr. Eitan Schechtman)
"Electroencephalography (EEG) mind reading: How machine learning can classify categories off your neural networks"

Soo Bin Park

(Advisor: Dr. Gyorgy Lur)
"Stress shapes how you perceive the world"

Nazek Queder

(Advisor: Dr. Michael Yassa)
White matter matters

2023

Nidhi Banavar

(Advisor: Dr. Aaron Bornstein)
"Fast is old and slow is new? Linking response times and memory discriminability"

Daniela Cossio

(Advisor: Dr. Christie Fowler)
"Midlife Crisis: The impact of early aging on navigation abilities"

Ari Khoudary

(Advisor: Dr. Megan Peters and Dr. Aaron Bornstein)
"Dynamically using memory to make better decisions"

Kate Lawson

(Advisor: Dr. Stephen Mahler)
"Just say no... sometimes: Psychedelic drugs may treat a range of disorders"

2022

Rajat Saxena

(Advisor: Dr. Bruce L. McNaughton)
"Lifelong learning in the brain"

Maricela Martinez

(Advisor: Dr. Stephen Mahler)
"Grass is less green: how adolescent THC exposure affects risky decision-making"

Jacob Rounds

(Advisor: Dr. Marcelo Wood)
"This is your brain on drugs"

Bianca Leonard

(Advisor: Dr. Michael Yassa)
"Your teenager's brain is pretty emotional"

2021

Cassie Kooiker

(Advisor: Dr. Tallie Z Baram)
"The Paraventricular Thalamus: A sensor & integrator of emotionally salient early-life experiences"

Desiree Macchia

(Advisor: Dr. Kevin Beier)
"Mapping brain circuits of Alzheimer's disease"

Daniel Rindner

(Advisor: Dr. Gyorgy Lur)
"How neurons keep from getting overwhelmed"

Alexandria Weaver

(Advisor: Dr. Susanne Jaeggi)
"Keeping the mind sharp is music to my ears"

2020

Negin Sattari Barabadi

(Advisor: Dr. Sara Mednick)
"Sex and age effects on sleep-related memory formation"

Sandra Gattas

(Advisor: Dr. Michael Yassa)
"How the brain keeps record of similar but separate memories"

Elizabeth Hubbard

(Advisor: Dr. Kevin T. Beier)
"Opioid withdrawal induces brain changes that contribute to drug relapse"

Sophia Levis

(Advisors: Dr. Tallie Z. Baram/Dr. Stephen Mahler)
"Effects of early life adversity on opioid addiction vulnerability"

2019

Natalie DiProspero

Natalie's research focuses on predicting Alzheimer's disease in people with Down syndrome.

2018

Freddie Marquez

Freddie's research focused on understanding the early mechanisms that contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.