Neuroscience General Exam: Josiah Quinn
Graduate Program in Neuroscience
General Exam
Josiah Quinn
Lab of Anna Gillespie
Magnuson Health Sciences Building, G-417
*Note: the public presentation is for the first hour only.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Magnuson Health Sciences Center G (HSG). Campus room: G417. Accessibility Contact: Please contact Jennifer Simpson at neurogrd@uw.edu if accommodations are required. Event Types: Academics.
Friday, May 15, 2026, 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM.
NAPE Seminar: Dr. Abigail Schindler
Dr. Abigail Schindler, UW Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, will present on "Translational Models for Studying Trauma and Substance Use" + "My Journey Past the Brain Disease Model of Addiction."
Abbie is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences with an active research lab at the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound. Her current work focuses on understanding the chronic impacts of physical and psychological stress using a mouse model of blast exposure and clinical and electronic health data from Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: William H. Foege Genome Sciences (GNOM). Campus room: S060 Auditorium. Accessibility Contact: Please contact Lydia Gordon-Fennell at lgordonf@uw.edu if accommodations are required. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Friday, May 15, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
NAPE Seminar: Dr. Richard Palmiter (HHMI Investigator, Biochemistry)
Dr. Palmiter will speak on "How our research evolved from studying body-weight regulation to nociplastic plain."
Information about Dr. Palmiter's research:
I started my career studying hormone action and transcriptional regulation during development of the chicken oviduct. My laboratory also cloned the first metallothionein genes and studied their regulation by hormones, metals and DNA methylation. Subsequently, we identified the first mammalian zinc efflux transporters.
In the early 1980’s I helped develop transgenic technology in collaboration with Dr. Ralph Brinster. During this 15-year collaboration, we identified promoter/enhancer elements for cell-specific gene expression for growth hormone, albumin, hemoglobin, protamine, and elastase genes and used them to study development, physiology and malignancy. In the mid- 1980’s we began to apply these transgenic techniques to neurobiology and in the mid-1990’s we began using gene targeting technology to inactivate genes involved in catecholamine…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: William H. Foege Genome Sciences (GNOM). Campus room: S060 Foege Auditorium. Accessibility Contact: Please contact Lydia Gordon-Fennell at lgordonf@uw.edu if accommodations are required. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Friday, May 29, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Neuro 510: Be Boundless (SPR2026)
Join us for Be Boundless, our final Neuro 510 seminar of Spring Quarter, to hear two post-docs present on their research!
Dr. Selina Baeza-Loya (Postdoctoral Scholar in the Lab of Dr. Dave Raible, UW Department of Otolaryngology), studies the neurobiology of sensory transduction and encoding.
Chary Marquez Batista (Postdoctoral Researcher at UW, Labs of Dr. Steve Perlmutter and Sarah Mondello) is a
Weill Neurohub Fellow exploring new therapies to promote neuroregeneration and sensorimotor recovery after spinal cord injury.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Magnuson Health Sciences Center T (HST). Campus room: T-360. Accessibility Contact: Please contact Jennifer Simpson at neurogrd@uw.edu if accommodations are required. Event Types: Academics. Lectures/Seminars.
Monday, June 1, 2026, 3:30 PM – 4:50 PM.
Neuroscience Final Exam: Monica Tschang
Graduate Program in Neuroscience
Dissertation Defense
Monica Tschang
Lab of Abigail Schindler
Microbial Mediators of Trauma: The Gut-Brain Axis in Adverse Outcomes Following Blast Injury
Health Sciences Education Building, Room 215
*Note: the public presentation is for the first hour only.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Health Sciences Education Building (HSEB). Campus room: 215. Accessibility Contact: Please contact Jennifer Simpson at neurogrd@uw.edu if accommodations are required. Event Types: Academics.
Tuesday, June 2, 2026, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
Neuroscience Final Exam: Cassidy Burke
Graduate Program in Neuroscience
Dissertation Defense
Cassidy Burke
Lab of Garret Stuber
Multimodal interrogation of cell type-specific transcriptional states and brain-wide activity profiles in maladaptive opioid use
Magnuson Health Sciences Center, K-069
*Note: the public presentation is for the first hour only.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Magnuson Health Sciences Center B (HSB). Campus room: K-069. Accessibility Contact: Please contact Jennifer Simpson at neurogrd@uw.edu if accommodations are required. Event Types: Academics.
Tuesday, June 2, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
NAPE Seminar: Dr. Scott Sternson (HHMI, UCSD)
Dr. Scott Sternson will speak on "Algorithms for Appetite."
Talk Information:
The brain continuously integrates signals from the body with information from the environment to coordinate feeding behavior, yet how this integration gives rise to distinct phases of appetite remains poorly understood. Our lab takes a mechanistic approach to this problem, combining molecular technologies with systems
neuroscience to deconstruct feeding into its component processes and identify the neural circuits that implement them.
A central focus is understanding how the brain can override homeostatic signals from the body, particularly in the context of palatable food. We have recently identified self-sustaining feedback processes in the brain
that prolong consumption beyond satiety, providing a circuit-level framework for understanding overeating. These findings reveal how the body's internal state and the brain's response to rewarding stimuli interact.
Our broader goal is to use this mechanistic understanding to explain…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: William H. Foege Genome Sciences (GNOM). Campus room: S060 Foege Auditorium. Accessibility Contact: Please contact Lydia Gordon-Fennell at lgordonf@uw.edu if accommodations are required. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Friday, June 5, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
SOM: Research to Careers (Alumni Insights Day)
Join us for Research to Careers: Alumni Insights Day, a career exploration event for graduate students and postdocs focused on the wide range of career opportunities available with a PhD featuring UW School of Medicine alumni from our biomedical research departments. Through interactive panels, you’ll hear firsthand about careers in academia, industry science, biotech roles beyond the bench, and scientific leadership. The program also includes a keynote address from Nobel Laureate Dr. Mary Brunkow, dedicated networking time with other students and alumni, and a practical workshop focused on building transferable skills.
Registration will open in mid-April. If you have any questions about this event, please reach out to somevent@uw.edu.
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: Please contact somevent@uw.edu if assistance is needed. Event Types: Conferences.
Wednesday, June 10, 2026, 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM.
UW Medicine SLU Campus.
For more info visit research-grad-ed.uwmedicine.org. NAPE Seminar: Dr. Garret Stuber (Pharmacology)
Details of Dr. Garret Stuber's talk forthcoming.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: William H. Foege Genome Sciences (GNOM). Campus room: S060 Foege Auditorium. Accessibility Contact: Please contact Lydia Gordon-Fennell at lgordonf@uw.edu if accommodations are required. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Friday, June 12, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Neuro First Years Rotation Talks (SPR26)
The 2025 Neuro Cohort will present ten-minute talks about their research in their Spring lab rotations. Members of the Neuroscience community are welcome to attend and ask questions.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Magnuson Health Sciences Center G (HSG). Campus room: G-328. Accessibility Contact: Please contact Jennifer Simpson at neurogrd@uw.edu if accommodations are required. Event Types: Academics. Lectures/Seminars.
Friday, June 12, 2026, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM.
SOM: PhD Hooding Ceremony
The UW School of Medicine PhD Hooding Ceremony acknowledges the achievements of students receiving doctoral degrees from the University of Washington School of Medicine. This event is held to honor the students graduating from biomedical research programs within the UW School of Medicine. All information and coordination for the event is handled by the Office of Research and Graduate Education.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Student Union Building (HUB). Campus room: Lyceum Room. Accessibility Contact: Please contact somevent@uw.edu if assistance is needed. Event Types: Ceremonies.
Monday, June 15, 2026, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
For more info visit research-grad-ed.uwmedicine.org. NIH Graduate and Professional School Fair
The Graduate Program in Neuroscience will be attending the NIH Graduate Fair on July 15, 2026 in Bethesda, MD on the NIH Campus (Natcher Conference Center). Student registration opens on Monday, May 4th (there is no registration fee.)
About the fair:
The NIH Graduate and Professional School Fair brings together trainees participating in the NIH Postbac Program, the NIH Summer Internship Program and other college and university students who are considering pursuing graduate or professional school.
The NIH Graduate & Professional School Fair consists of: Panel and short lecture sessions that provide recommendations for getting into graduate and/or professional school. , In-person exhibitor sessions. The exhibitor sessions are your opportunity to meet and speak with students and trainees.
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: This event is hosted by the NIH. Please contact pbp@od.nih.gov for accessibility assistance. Event Types: Information Sessions.
Wednesday, July 15, 2026, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Natcher+Conference+Center/@38.9978413,-77.0988804,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x89b7c95e59db76ef:0x1cb6d53ae827bcc4!8m2!3d38.9978413!4d-77.0988804!16s%2Fg%2F1tdmlcf7?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDQyMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D.
For more info visit www.training.nih.gov. 2027 Neuro PhD Applications Open
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: Please contact Jennifer Simpson at neurogrd@uw.edu if accommodations are required. Event Types: Academics.
Saturday, August 1, 2026.
For more info visit gpneuro.uw.edu. Neuroscience PhD Info Session (1 of 3)
This session is for prospective applicants interested in joining the UW Neuroscience Autumn 2027 cohort. We will discuss questions related to the 2027 application process along with any other questions applicants may have about the program or life in Seattle.
Event interval: Single day event. Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/91662328733. Accessibility Contact: Please contact Jennifer Simpson at neurogrd@uw.edu if accommodations are required. Event Types: Academics. Information Sessions.
Tuesday, August 11, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Zoom.