We are pleased to welcome Olivia McGinnis to the Unit as a visiting student.

Olivia is currently pursuing her D.Phil. in Neuroscience at Oxford on a Rhodes/Clarendon Scholarship. Olivia joins the Dupret Group for spring 2021, where she will investigate hippocampal neuronal dynamics during memory task in mice under the supervision of Dr. Helen Barron.

Olivia studied Neuroscience at Harvard University, where she completed her undergraduate thesis research with Dr. Florian Engert in 2020. There, Olivia performed detailed kinematic analyses of larval zebrafish to understand algorithms implemented during goal-directed behaviours, specifically decision-making during escapes in the presence of obstacles. Her previous studies combined two-photon interrogation of a neural circuit with behavioural assays. Working with Helen in the Unit, Olivia will now learn hippocampal network physiology using a combination of in vivo multichannel extracellular recordings and calcium imaging in mice.