Pembroke Travels: Juliana Choi

In May 2023, Pembroke DPhil candidate Juliana Choi (2021, DPhil Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics) travelled to Les Diablerets, Switzerland, to present a research poster at her first international conference.

Juliana, whose trip was supported Pembroke’s Melandra Castle Travel Fund, attended the Gordon Research Seminar, ‘Integrating Diverse Approaches to Understand Neural Mechanisms of Behaviour’ and the Gordon Research Conference, ‘Mechanisms that Underlie Flexible Neural Coding’.

Juliana’s trip also came with the opportunity to present her poster, titled ‘Roles in learning for octopaminergic modulation of Drosophila dopaminergic neurons’ to an audience of international academics, receiving constructive feedback from neuroscientists at the forefront of their field. She reflects on the experience: “The poster presentation sessions were insightful and helpful for me to present my research to a diverse audience and have discussions about where I hope to take my work going forward. Despite attendees being neuroscientists, I learned to adapt my presentation depending on the person’s research background and clarify background concepts where necessary.”

Alongside presenting her own research, Juliana attended a variety of talks from other postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows, including Pembroke Senior Research Fellow Professor Scott Waddell, who presented his lab’s recent work on multisensory learning and memory.

Juliana concludes that: “I am extremely thankful to be jointly awarded the Melandra Castle Fund to support my trip to the beautiful Les Diablerets to attend the Gordon Research Seminar and Gordon Research Conference on the modulation of neural circuits and behaviours. As this was my first time attending and presenting my work at an international conference, I found the scientific community that I met to be supportive and inspirational. I hope to apply the constructive feedback that I received to enrich our understanding of octopaminergic modulation associative learning and memory, and I look forward to the next opportunity to share my research and learn from others at the forefront of the field”

Click here to read Juliana’s full report.

Juliana was one of two recipients this year of the Melandra Castle Travel Fund. You can read about Yaseen Christian Andrewsen’s research trip to Morocco using the fund here.