#TraineeTuesday: Chris Camp

From the Lab to the Limelight - Blog version of our #TraineeTuesday Twitter series

This week's #TraineeTuesday star is Chris Camp (any pronouns), an INP student in the lab of Dustin Scheinost, PhD! Chris was recently awarded the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship, which will fund his research over the next three years.

At Yale, Chris investigates the statistics behind fMRI analysis to improve its psychiatric applications. “I hope to improve our understanding of how reliable fMRI data are, giving us a better idea of how we might identify neural markers of psychiatric illness like depression,” she said.

Chris’ dream of becoming a neuroscientist started as early as 7th grade. “I’ve always been fascinated with the way we think, so cognitive neuroscience was a natural fit,” they recalled. It wasn’t long before they dipped their toes into research. In high school, Chris started working at the Medical University of South Carolina under Jane Joseph, PhD, who taught them computational techniques for analyzing fMRI data. Chris continued this line of research at Duke University, where they studied neuroscience, and worked with Felipe De Brigard, PhD, at the intersection of memory, philosophy, and neuroscience.

After graduation, Chris joined the National Institute of Mental Health for a two-year postbac position. Tasked with applying computational approaches to study adolescent depression, he started studying the publications of Stephanie Noble, PhD, and Dr. Scheinost, who are now his postdoctoral mentor and PI, respectively.

In 2021, Chris left the NIMH and enrolled in Yale’s Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program.

Her favorite memory here has been working with her peer, Efrat Abramson, to plan INP's Neuroday — an annual conference where the Neuroscience community shares their work and welcomes the incoming first-years.

In the long term, Chris hopes to teach and lead a lab at a research institute. She believes teaching is crucial to inspiring the next generation of neuroscientists and fostering an inclusive academic atmosphere.