Graduate Student In Dombeck Lab Wins Prestigious Award
May 11, 2018
This April, NUIN Graduate Student, Maite Azcorra-Sedano, was invited to Madrid, where she received the prestigious La Caixa Graduate Scholarship. Both King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain were in attendance at the ceremony to present the scholarship in person.
The La Caixa Foundation is the fourth largest charity in the world with programs that award brilliant students access to academic and research opportunities at some of the top universities in the world. Since its founding in 1982, the La Caixa Graduate Scholarship has developed into the most important program in Spain and is recognized as one of the most relevant scholarship programs in all of Europe. The Foundation recognizes students for both their academic and social achievements and strives to improve society through the legacies of its scholarship recipients.
Azcorra-Sedano is in her second year of Northwestern’s NUIN Graduate program. She works in the Dombeck Lab where they are currently examining the nigro-striatal pathway of the dopamine system. This pathway has significant implications in a variety of functions from movement regulation to learning. Azcorra-Sedano explains that she is most interested in “studying the relationship between this functional diversity and the recently discovered molecular diversity of dopamine neurons.” With this research, she aims to understand whether different dopaminergic neuron subtypes have distinct functions.
After finishing the NUIN Graduate program, Azcorra-Sedano looks to continue her career in research.