Emma grew up in Germany and Finland. In 2014, she moved to the U.S. to pursue a B.Sc. in Neuroscience at New York University. Her first exposure to research was in Dr. Regina Sullivan’s laboratory at NYU Langone/Nathan Kline Institute, where she completed her undergraduate thesis on the effects of caregiver abuse on infant brain state. After graduating, to follow her growing interest in molecular neuroscience, she worked as a research assistant in Dr. Matthew Pecot’s laboratory at Harvard Medical School. There she was involved in investigating principles underlying synaptic specificity in the Drosophila visual system. For her PhD, Emma is excited to explore the connection between cell biology and neuronal function in the Clandinin lab at Stanford. She is inspired by questions like: how neurons organize their subcellular machinery to support diverse functions? What makes neurons capable of maintaining their functions throughout life? And how diverse mechanisms of intercellular communication coexist in the brain?