SCIENCE!
Moments from study and research work.




The New Museum, NYC

Omg! Big day for nerd(s). I witnessed the original science illustrations by the Father of Neuroscience! Eee

Before Santiago Ramón y Cajal's stuff, people knew that there were nerve cells, but weren't so sure that they were individual and "talking" across a gap. It was thought that that they rather formed a continuous, "cytoplasmic syncytium" 
~The Reticular Theory~.

Among this idea's agree-ers was 
Camillo Golgi (Same fella from Golgi apparatus).

 

Maybe ironically , Cajal improved and used Golgi’s staining method (which randomly stains a few neurons black) by finding some ways to optimize precision. I won't yap your face off about all that here, though

Through years of observations across many brain regions, the method allowed Cajal to show that neurons were separate units, not a giant continuous web. (No syncytium - confirmed!). He drew what he saw in the microscope by eyeballing it with such detail. NO fancy CAMERAS!! So, these drawings mark this moment in the babyhood of Neuroscience. They're also still so appreciated because they’re so beautiful!!! Cajal was also a bodybuilder. Hehe. I had the (office?) one taped on my apartment window in undergrad facing the street. Plus, original HOMUNCULUS SPOTTING. Did not expect that.






Student-led Neuroscience Club 
leads to new minor at MSU

By • June 21, 2025

Read



(gasp)







Examining native mississippi bugs to illustrate for the MS
Entomological museum when I worked as their graphic designer. 
This is our wall full of pinned insects.




“Day for Neuroscience”
Starkville Public Library +
Neuroscience Club at MSU
(Multiple returning events)
Tristan Henderson, Biology Ph.D. student,
myself, senior researcher and science student,
and Charlie Thompson, junior researcher and
science student, pictured hosting “Day for
Neuroscience” at the Starkville Public Library.



I booked this event with the library 
through neuroscience club at MSU, 
the organization i founded.



Exploring ideas with stuffed animal dopamine molecule + neurons, brain models, and learning more about the microscope.
Our brain’s role in regulating our body temperature through perspiration (sweating). Showing how tiny sweat glands are.
Coloring our Neuroscience Club original coloring sheets!
Watching a salamander grow from one cell to a fully formed organism. Watch it here
Exploring other small things through the microscope (pond water, ew!).
Learning what an EEG cap is for and trying one on!
Viewing brain tissue samples on slides through the microscope.



A friend was being published in Nature.
Their lab wanted some help with imaging technique for the cover.
This is from us helping out in devising a (very temporary) holding
tube for the insect and parasitic wasp so the photo could be
snapped. I used two microscope slides and clear hot glue.
Pourous putty to close the top for just a bit.
We safely returned them to their
home in the lab after quick photos.





Neuroscience Club
at Mississippi State University
            As a sophomore at Mississippi State University, I founded the Neuroscience Club organization. Upon arriving at MSU, I had limited knowledge of both academia and the intricacies of neuroscience. When I searched for terms like 'brain' or 'neuroscience' on the university’s platforms, I found little information. Eventually, I discovered that neuroscience was present, though not always labeled as such. This realization inspired me to establish the club, and through this process, I was able to deepen my understanding of the field. The club quickly grew to over two hundred members and hosted a range of events, most notably two brain dissections. We also organized numerous outreach activities and provided opportunities to examine genuine neurons under the microscope. The club has become a unifying force for all neuroscience-related initiatives on campus, fostering growth in the field and playing a key role in the establishment of the university’s first official neuroscience minor.

   As the president, I placed a priority in making our advertisement interesting.
Myself and Gabriella Sutherland, Artist and President of Arts and Letters, work on creating all the club graphics ourselves.

Myself with fellow Executive officers, Emma and James




Brickfire Mentoring Project Visiting Day
Neuroscience Club visited the kids at brickfire
and we gave a short presentation about the nervous system.
We then made brain hats with them.









We held an event at neuro club where we
invited the public to look inside of a microscope 
at real neurons/ neural tissue and also learn
a bit about how how to operate the microscope





general unsorted

slime mold
eeg
optogenetics talk with james for neuro club (james was the researcher)
harned hall, biology
felicity



A most recent article about our brain dissection(s) at Neuroscience Club


I joined VisNA for my second rotation in the first year of Ph.D. 
The cognitive neuroscience (of Aesthetics) lab exists within a repurposed wet biology lab. This means it looks like I could see another Trist-amoeba  at any moment! But instead, it’s computers. Very coool.