11th Annual WIL Luncheon

OCTOBER 2nd, 2021
12PM
Ann Arbor, MI
SPEAKER: DR. KATE WASSUM

Dr. Kate Wassum began her science career as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned a B.S. in Psychology. During this time, she worked with both Drs. Mark Wrightman and Regina Carelli studying the contribution of addictive substances to phasic mesolimbic dopamine signaling. She continued her research at UCLA working with Drs. Bernard Balleine and Nigel Maidment, where she studied the neurochemical processes underlying value-based decision making. After her postdoctoral work in Dr. Maidment’s lab, she joined the UCLA Department of Psychology faculty and is currently a full professor.

Dr. Wassum is part of the Brain Research Institute, Integrative Center for Learning & Memory, and Integrative Center for Addictive Disorders at UCLA. Dr. Wassum has made substantial contributions to the field with thorough mechanistic insight into the cortico-striatal-limbic circuits contributing to learning and memory processes. The Wassum lab specifically takes a circuit approach to understanding the signals and brain regions essential for appetitive associative learning, motivated behavior, and decision making to understand how abnormalities in these processes contribute to maladaptive behavior and has been consistently funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA). Aside from her research, Dr. Wassum is an excellent mentor to many neuroscience and psychology students and postdocs, and has been a great resource for writing, science, and life to many students in and outside of her lab. Dr. Wassum is a current editor at eLife and the Journal of Neuroscience, and serves on the editorial board of Neuropsychopharmacology, ACS Chemical Neuroscience, and Scientific Reports. You can check out her extremely helpful resources for grant writing and PhD program application tips here. We are thrilled to have Dr. Wassum as our featured speaker for the annual Women in Learning luncheon.

For more information about Dr. Wassum and her lab, please visit her lab webpage here.

Thank you!

Team WIL hosted our 11th Annual Luncheon in Ann Arbor, MI on Saturday, October 2, 2021. We heard from Dr. Kate Wassum as our Distinguished Guest Speaker on navigating life and her career. We also awarded both Caitlyn Edwards and Tanya Gupta the Outstanding Graduate Woman in Learning Award this year, who will have registration covered for next year’s Pavlovian Society Annual Meeting.

We are so thrilled that we could host this event in person this year, and we appreciate all of your support during difficult times. If you haven’t yet donated, you can do so here.

We look forward to seeing everyone again next year in Milwaukee, WI!