M. Catalina (Cat) Camacho is a PhD Candidate in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences Neuroscience program at Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to entering her PhD program, Cat completed a BA in psychology at Stanford University (with a focus on health and development) in 2014 and worked for three years as an MR research coordinator at Stanford before starting her PhD in 2017. Cat loves science and mentoring. Her research focuses on how we develop our emotional selves across infancy and early childhood, using primarily MRI, behavioral assays, and computational approaches to probe these questions. Importantly, the neural architecture that we develop during the first years of life sets the stage for later emotional functioning, potentially placing some children at risk for developing psychopathology while others are equipped for resiliency in the face of stress. In pursuit of this research, Cat has received a Graduate Research Fellowship from NSF and an NRSA predoctoral fellowship from NIH in addition to research and presentation awards. Her mentees have joined doctoral programs in neuroscience and psychology and have published and presented joint work in journals and conferences. Cat is also passionate about breaking down the systemic barriers to equity in academia and is an active member of student groups towards that end. For more information or to browse her code or artwork, please visit www.catcamacho.net.
