Stephanie White majored in biopsychology at Connecticut College, then obtained her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Stanford, followed by postdoctoral work at Duke. Throughout, she has used a neuroethological approach to understand how social interactions shape the brain. Her own lab studies songbirds to investigate how the environment influences one’s learning and creativity. Recently, humans have entered this comparative framework with collaborative exploration of the speech-related gene, FoxP2, in human and songbird vocal learning.

Nancy joined the White lab in Spring 2012.  As an undergraduate, she went to Whitman College and double-majored in Biology and Psychology.  She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, in the birdsong lab of Dr. Teresa Nick, where she examined cortical circuit dynamics of the song nucleus HVC in juvenile and adult zebra finches.  For her postdoctoral work, she is investigating if adult maintenance of learned song is regulated by the language-related gene FoxP2.  As a hobby, Nancy is actively involved in the cat fancy promoting the Old-Style Siamese breed.

POSTDOCS

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Zach is a Ph.D student in the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology program. He graduated from California State University, Long Beach, in 2008 with a B.S. in Zoology and minors in Physiology and Chemistry. While an undergraduate, he worked as an animal trainer at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, where he also studied the social dynamics of within a changing exhibit population of California sea lions and harbor seals. Zach then joined the White Lab in 2008 and completed a M.S. degree in Physiological Science in 2010 by developing the zebra finch as a model system for Parkinson's disease. He spends his time outside of lab running long distances in training for his next ultramarathon.

Elizabeth is a 5th year graduate student in the MCIP graduate program.  She attended Virginia Commonwealth University for her undergraduate degree in Biology and Psychology.  Her thesis research explores the role of the reelin signaling pathway in both learned vocalizations (zebra finches), and in innate vocalizations (mice).   In humans, deficits in reelin signaling have been linked to autism.  Liz is also a trained dancer, and can often be found performing in and around Los Angeles.

UNDERGRADUATES

Caitlin is a graduate student in the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Ph.D Program. As an undergraduate she worked in the David Sweatt lab at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, earning a B.S. in Neuroscience and a B.A. in Anthropology in 2013. Her graduate work investigates the mechanistic basis for behavioral regulation of song-related gene expression. Her hobbies include writing science fiction, science blogging, growing tropical plants, making garden art, distance running, attending music festivals, and general novelty seeking.