Brian Castelluccio '12 Attends Society For Nueroscience Conference In D.C.: In His Own Words



Brian Castelluccio '12

I went to the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting in Washington, D.C. to share my research and hear about cutting edge work happening in the neuroscience community. Many students and faculty from Trinity attend this conference every year, and this year was no exception. The conference hosted 32,000 people from around the world sharing research across many disciplines of neuroscience. Thousands of scientists presented research posters, seminars, and lectures over the course of five days. I presented my work on impulsivity in cocaine users at one of the poster sessions. At the Institute of Living's Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, I use functional MRI to study neural activity associated with inhibitory control and error monitoring in current cocaine users, former cocaine users, and healthy subjects. I have found that former cocaine users show particular patterns of overactivation in certain brain regions in response to commission of errors in a simple behavior task. One hypothesis is that these patterns reflect cognitive strategies that allow the former users to achieve and maintain abstinence. This research continues at the Olin Center, as do other projects investigating substance abuse and impulsivity.

Hour of Power



The Bantams Celebrate After The Hour of Power

On November 8, 2011 the Bantams participated in the Ted Mullin “Hour of Power.” The Relay event has grown from 15 teams in its first year to 146 teams in 2011, with almost 7,000 athletes participating. Over the past five years, participants in the "Hour of Power” raised over $265,000 for the Ted Mullin Fund for Pediatric Sarcoma Research at the Comer Children's Hospital at the University of Chicago.  The relay style set was Ted’s favorite, and hist former Carleton College team felt it would be an appropriate memorial to Ted to run a “Leave it in the Pool” practice consisting of continuous relays, any stroke, all-out swimming, for one hour, with the objective of keeping all relays in each lane on the same length. All 146 teams across the country complete the set during the same hour.

Ryan McCann Attends Fall Leadership Conference For the Presidential Fellows Program In Washington D.C.: In His Own Words

Ryan McCann '14

"I went to Washington D.C. last November for the fall leadership conference, which is one, of two, mandatory conferences for the Presidential Fellows Program. The purpose of the program is to enrich the 75 selected undergraduate students with knowledge and leadership training, while allowing them first hand experience into meeting the leaders of the American political world. This experience is boiled down to the crafting of a 15 page single spaced dissertation that is relevant to some aspect of the American political system. The ultimate goal is that my paper will be among the top two and win the distinguished James R. Moffett Award or the Donald B. Marron Award. In addition the top 18 papers are also published into the Fellows Review, which is read by many members of Congress. Among 75 other students, from the best schools in the country, I was able to not only share my ideas about what I wanted my paper to focus on, but I was able to hear feedback from what they thought would be better approaches. There were also many guest speakers throughout the three days spent there, among them were, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, The Honorable Togo D. West Jr., The Honorable Adrian Fenty, and Dr. James Zogby. The experience was one that I will never forget, and I look forward to attending the spring leadership conference."