I am currently a rising senior biology major at Southern University at New Orleans with an interest in Neuroscience. Princeton has a reputation of excellence that is known worldwide. If I am chosen for this program I will be exposed to this reputable research environment and I will experience in a small way the requirements for research at a distinguished university like Princeton. Once I graduate I would like to pursue my doctorate degree in Neuroscience at Princeton’s Neuroscience Institute with Dr. Buschman, because his investigation into executive control is very interesting. I also understand that because of the reputation of a university like Princeton that the standards for the SIP will be very high and will challenge me intellectually …show more content…
Through this program I will have the opportunity to work closely with great neuroscientists and learn more about what it takes to accomplish my goal of becoming a Principle Investigator. The research I participate in while participating in the PNI-SIP will give me vital research experience studying cognitive function that will be vital for my future pursuit of a doctorate degree in Neuroscience, and it will further help me accomplish my career goal of conducting independent research by allowing me to have the opportunity to learn techniques that I will be able utilize for the duration of my career. My career began once I was admitted to Southern University at New Orleans I became a work-study and met my mentor who first introduced me to research. I was blessed with several opportunities to present my research in both oral and poster format at regional and national conferences. My first research project sought to determine the effect of the alkane degrading microbe Alcanivorax borkumensis’s colonization in the gut of the shrimp species Farfantepenaeus aztecus and Litopenaeus setiferus in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP Oil