emmadauster

Emma’s PhD Defense

On April 4, 2023, Emma defended her PhD dissertation in the Neuroscience and Behavior program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst under the guidance of Dr. Elena Vazey. The talk included female/male comparisons in the brain and decision-making behavior as it relates to norepinephrine. The link to the full recording can be found here.

UMass Amherst Neuroscience and Behavior Seminar

In my third year of grad school, I was asked to give the weekly NSB seminar talk. I used this opportunity to describe the findings from my control experiments and debunk the myth that pharmaceuticals like Strattera enhance your brain power. At least for my rats who weren’t exhibiting signs of inattention or hyperactivity beforeContinue reading “UMass Amherst Neuroscience and Behavior Seminar”

Society for Neuroscience

Read to the end for the complete story! I attended the annual SfN meeting in 2018 during my first year of grad school. At that time, I had conducted decision-making experiments in female rats so that the results could be compared to my advisor’s previous findings in male rats. We found that males were moreContinue reading “Society for Neuroscience”

Gordon Research Conference

I attended the GRC for catecholamines (a category of chemical including dopamine, noradrenaline, and adrenaline) Summer 2019. There, I presented a poster comparing the effects on decision-making behavior of manipulating dopamine and noradrenaline vs noradrenaline alone. From the experiments I conducted, females seem to be more strongly affected by dopamine and noradrenaline manipulations, while malesContinue reading “Gordon Research Conference”

Emma’s Science Cafe (Video)

If you want to hear about some of my favorite findings from my PhD and my general thoughts on research and science communication, then you’ll love this video.

Mentoring Musings

As a PhD candidate, I have the opportunity to mentor students that I work with while I am simultaneously mentored by my own advisors. This perspective allows me to reflect on my experiences as a mentee and mentor and adjust my mentorship practices in real time. Such reflections have led me to 10 considerations thatContinue reading “Mentoring Musings”

Three Minute Thesis (People’s Choice Award)

Thank you to everyone who voted for my Three Minute Thesis! I am proud to be your People’s Choice winner of the annual graduate competition held by UMass Amherst! If you’d like to read more about how the Three Minute Thesis changed from year to year during a global pandemic, check out my article posted onContinue reading “Three Minute Thesis (People’s Choice Award)”

Gender in Science

If you’re new to interrogating the impacts of gender in a community, check out the Life Science Cafe. We recently invited our first anthropologist into these community chats: Dr. Elias Capello (video recording of their talk to be uploaded shortly). For a free-form workshop to rethink gender in science, check out the following resources fromContinue reading “Gender in Science”

Science Policy and Communication Podcast

I had the pleasure of speaking with Mark Bayer and my father, Bill Dauster (who has returned to the Senate since recording this podcast), on politics, science, communication, and everything in between. In this episode, we dove into the overlapping worlds of research and policy-making. We discussed the importance of a brief and informative report,Continue reading “Science Policy and Communication Podcast”

Anti-Racism

A good place to start: Dr. Ibram X Kendi leads the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. Want to make change in your own community? My friend Wayne Barnaby has been meeting with university administration at all levels to effect change in line with the petition he created during the Summer of 2020. Today, hisContinue reading “Anti-Racism”