people

Eliot Brenowitz

Position: Professor

Contact: eliotb@u.washington.edu Download CV

Eliot received his Ph.D. in 1982 from Cornell University, where his dissertation was on environmental influences on song communication in red-winged blackbirds. He did postdoctoral research at UCLA in the laboratory of Arthur Arnold, looking at the neuroendocrine basis of song duetting behavior in several species of tropical birds. He joined the faculty at UW in 1987 and holds appointments as professor in the departments of Biology and Psychology; currently, he is also a co-director of the Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior. Additionally, Eliot is a member of the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center and has served as an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and a Bloedel Hearing Research Scholar. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Animal Behavior Society, and a recipient of a Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Melissa Caras

Position: PhD Candidate

Contact: mcaras@u.washington.edu Download CV

Melissa received a B.S. in neuroscience and a B.S. in biology in 2007 from Brandeis University, where she studied the effect of 5-HT1A receptor modulation on salt intake and perception in the lab of Dr. Donald Katz. After completing a series of lab rotations with the the Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, Melissa became a member of the Brenowitz lab in 2008. Her dissertation project is a collaboration between the Brenowitz and Rubel labs, investigating the effect of seasons and hormones on auditory processing in white-crowned sparrows. More broadly, her research interests include sensory physiology, the evolution of communication and language, and neuroethology.

Tracy Larson

Position: PhD Candidate

Contact: talarson@u.washington.edu Download CV

Tracy received a B.S. in neurobiology and a B.S. in cellular, molecular, and developmental biology in 2006 from the University of Washington. As an undergraduate researcher, she cloned and characterized components of a putative circadian clock in the Red Rock Crab, Cancer productus, in the laboratory of Dr. Horacio de la Iglesia. As a research scientist in the lab of Dr. David Parichy, she studied the role of a specific tubulin in the formation and maintenance of glia in the central and peripheral nervous systems. Upon entering the Graduate Program in Biology at the University of Washington, Tracy participated in a series of lab rotations that included the study of the circadian aspects of mood disorders and the circadian timing of flowering in Arabidopsis. She joined the Brenowitz laboratory in 2009. Her dissertation project investigates the effects of photoperiod and sex steroids on neurogenesis and neuroprotection in Gambel's white-crowned sparrow. More specifically, she aims to uncover the molecular signaling mechanisms that confer the neuroprotection of testosterone observed previously by members of the Brenowitz lab.

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