Ravish Sharma
Ravish finished his B.Sc. in Integrated Science in 2018 and studied immunology, nutrition, and physiology. He then completed courses in business and accounting. Ravish is currently working in the financial sector.
Whitney Krieger
Whitney completed her BSc Biology Honours thesis in the Soma Lab in 2018. She and Marie Turcott studied the effects of food availability on motivation to exercise, using a novel operant conditioning paradigm. She received an award from the NSERC USRA Program to work full-time in the lab during the summer of 2018, to learn […]
George Kachkovski
George worked in the Soma Lab (2015-2018) as part of the Honours Program in Psychology and continued his research with funding from the Arts Undergraduate Research Award and the Work Learn Program and the NSERC USRA Program. George studied how consumption of sucrose (table sugar) by the mother affects the brain and behaviour of her offspring, as well as the gut […]
Marie Turcott
Marie completed her BA in Psychology in 2018. She was in the Psychology Honours Program and presented her research at the UBC Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference. For her Honours project, she worked with Whitney Krieger to develop novel methods to measure the motivation to exercise in rats. Marie then completed a JD at UBC Law School.
Helen Schweitzer
Helen completed her B.Sc. in Psychology in 2017. She completed a Directed Studies course with Prof. Soma, participated in the Work Learn Program, and presented at the UBC Undergraduate Neuroscience Conference. Her research examined how androgens influence behavioural flexibility, and also the effects of aging on dopamine receptors in the brain. She is co-author on […]
Anastasia Korol
Anastasia worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Soma Lab. Her research was focused on local synthesis of steroids in the rat brain and its regulation by gonadal hormones, cognitive challenges, and diet. She also studied local glucocorticoid production in immune tissues. Anastasia is a co-author on two peer-reviewed papers and presented her findings […]
Jennifer Ferris
Jenn worked in the Soma Lab as an undergraduate and examined two neuropeptides that regulate reproduction (GnRH and GnIH). She received a Faculty of Arts AURA award to complete this project. From her work in the Soma Lab as an undergraduate, Jenn is a co-author on 2 papers and the first-author on a paper in Journal of Neuroendocrinology. Jenn completed a MSc in […]
Valerie M. Lo
Valerie completed her BA in Psychology at UBC in 2020. During her undergraduate degree, Valerie worked in the lab of Prof. Stan Floresco and studied the role of the medial prefrontal cortex in behavioural flexibility. As an MA student, she focused on investigating the relationship between locally-produced testosterone in the mesocorticolimbic system and behavioural flexibility, […]
Sofia L. Gray
Sofia completed her BA in Psychology in 2020 at UBC and completed her MA in Psychology in 2022. As an undergraduate, she received the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award. Her research focused on social behaviour and sex steroids produced locally in the brain. She studied neurosteroids, particularly with regard to regulation of territorial aggression in song sparrows. […]
Ryan J. Tomm
Ryan received his BA and MA in Psychology from UBC, working with Prof. Soma and Prof. Stan Floresco. Ryan examined how neurosteroids, such as testosterone, regulate different aspects of executive function, particularly behavioural flexibility. Ryan received multiple NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards and multiple NSERC Aboriginal Ambassador awards. He has taken his passion for research beyond the lab, […]