Margaret Young

EDUCATION

College / University

Northwestern University

Highest Degree

Bachelor of Arts

Major Subjects

Neuroscience

Country

USA

Lab Experience

My undergraduate research exposed me to optogenetic inactivation and electromyography recordings in mice and behavioral assays and quantification (data analysis, including dimensionality reduction and statistical tests, in MATLAB and Python and video labelling in DeepLabCut). However, I also completed undergraduate coursework that focused on machine learning and mathematical modelling techniques in Python, on electrophysiological recordings in Aplysia ganglia, and on other molecular techniques, including Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, and PCR.

Projects / Research

03/2019 – 09/2020: Undergraduate researcher with Dr. Andrew Miri in the Neurobiology Department at Northwestern University. My work culminated in my Bachelor’s thesis titled “A Quantitative Analysis of Cortical Influence on Complex Movement in Real Time.”

Scholarships / Awards

2020 – 2022:	Gold Neurasmus Excellence Scholarship (NExS)
2020 – 2021:	Stipend by International Max Planck Research School
2019 – 2020:	NEURON Program Participant, Department of Neurobiology at Northwestern University
Summer 2019:	Neuroscience Summer Research Grant, Department of Neurobiology at Northwestern University

SCIENTIFIC INTERESTS AND GOALS

My scientific interests lie at the intersection of systems and computational neuroscience, as I hope to combine modern computational techniques with new methods in systems neuroscience. Advances in machine learning and data science have expanded the computational capacity of neural network models and improved our ability to find underlying structure in large datasets, revealing patterns in how neural populations interact to complete complex calculations. At the same time, technological developments in optogenetics, electrophysiology, and genetics now allow the silencing of specific neural populations, the simultaneous recording of multiple neurons, or the targeting of particular subsets of cells based on their genetic identity, respectively. Therefore, I’m interested in leveraging these combined methods to decipher the functional elements of particular brain systems and how these elements interact with each other or with elements from other systems to integrate multiple information streams and to produce behavior.