Autism, college life, and connecting with other minority students during undergrad. In this audio clip on what it’s like being an undergraduate from another country, autistic self-advocate Laura Gilmour asks her mentor Dr. Melike Shalomon, originally from Barvaria, about her experiences acclimating to studying in Canada when she was an undergraduate.
Dr. Schalomon’s background is in behavioral neuroscience. Her graduate education focused on animal research in rodents, with an emphasis on neuroanatomy, neurosurgery and neurogenetics. She studied cerebral lateralization and the consequences of damage to the corpus callosum as a result of split brain surgery and congenital agenesis of the callosum. After obtaining her degree, she developed a secondary teaching and research interest in the field of human sexuality with a primary focus on sexual orientation. She has explored the relationship between sexual orientation and sexual behavior in exceptional populations. Over the past several years, her main research interests have refocused on behavioral neuroscience. She is engaged in a program of research using zebrafish. Zebrafish are rapidly becoming a major model organism for studying the nervous system, as their genetics are well understood and their neurochemistry closely parallels that of the human brain. One focus of Dr. Schalomon’s research with zebrafish is the development of reliable and valid paradigms for assessing zebrafish behavior. These paradigms are then used to explore how environmental manipulations, for example pharmaceutical agents, affect various behaviors including anxiety and memory.
Download the transcript here: Laura Gilmour and Dr. Melike Schalomon Being a Minority on Campus as an Undergrad.docx
Want to hear more from Laura and Dr. Schalomon? Try these:
STEM, Autism, and Building Professional Relationships: Interview with a Mentor, Part One
Debate in College STEM Classes: Hot Topics & Autistic Students
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Questions or comments? Let us know!