Research Ambassadors
Rama Awad '27
Email me at: rawad2@u.rochester.edu
Discipline(s) of Research
- Engineering and Mathematics
- Life Sciences
Major(s) and Minor(s)
- B.S. in Neuroscience
- B.A. in Computer Science
Areas of Interest/Research Focus
- Naturalistic Cognition Lab (Iordan Lab) - Investigating the role of priming in narrative comprehension and recall, applying computational modeling to behavioral and continuous fMRI data.
- Hablitz Lab - Investigating circadian physiology and sleep disruption in patients recovering from brain injury through a retrospective clinical study.
- Nedergaard Lab - Glial Disease and Therapeutics Lab, where I gained experience with murine models, surgical procedures, imaging techniques, and data analysis pipelines.
Areas where I may be particularly helpful
- Reaching out to PIs
- Changing paths in research
- Potentially a tour of my lab
What advice do you have for prospective or new researchers?
You don’t have to have everything figured out before starting research. In my opinion, the whole point of undergraduate research is to explore: to learn which questions excite you, which research areas you enjoy or don’t enjoy, and what kinds of lab environments help you grow. Your interests will evolve, and it’s okay to change paths as they do. You don’t need to enter a lab already knowing all the answers or having a perfectly defined niche. Research is just as much about discovering what you care about as it is about discovering something new.