Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy graduate students Cameron Jeter and Proletta Datta have placed 2nd and 3rd, respectively in this year’s Writing Science for the Lay Public contest.
For doctoral students in The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston (GSBS), writing ability is especially critical, and will continue to be important throughout their careers as they prepare the grants, reports, and papers on which the success of their professional work-and their funding-depend. The UT Health Science Center invited all Ph.D. candidates (e.g. from the School of Public Health, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences) to submit a 500 word summary of our dissertation work written as to appear in a newspaper or news magazine. Thus, the summaries were written for the non-scientist.
Cameron won 2nd place in the Clinical and Translational Science category and Proleta won 3rd place in the Fundamental Basic Research category.
Cameron Jeter is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Neuroscience Program at The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston. In the lab of Dr. Anne Sereno, Cameron investigates what brain areas may cause the motor and vocal tics of children with Tourette Syndrome. She has received an NIH training fellowship through the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences for her work, which translates basic science discoveries into clinical application, as well as many local, national, and international awards for her research and communication skills. Among these honors is a $15,000 National Scholar Award from the Philanthropic Educational Organization in 2008.
Cameron serves as a teaching assistant, standing committee member, and recycling program volunteer at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Through outreach events like tours of her lab, Brain Night, and the Sally Ride Science Festival, Cameron expresses her passion for helping the public view science as awe-inspiring, applicable, and within their grasp.
Proleta received her medical training from Kasturba Medical College in India before joining the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston in 2005. She is currently a PhD student In Dr. Ruth Heidelberger’s Lab. Her research focuses on understanding how nerve cells in the retina transmit visual information. In her spare time she enjoys writing short stories and often wonders if the pen is mightier than the pipette?