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Inside Your Head: The Physics of Medical Imaging in the Study of Mood

https://www.nih.gov/

  Dr. Allison Nugent has been looking inside our brains for many years now.  An alumna of Missouri State, she proceeded to Duke University, where she obtained her Ph.D. in 2000.  She took her expertise to the National Institutes of Mental Health and has been working on medical imaging ever since. 

   Using techniques rooted in physics, she has explored how medical imaging can yield insight into the mechanisms of mood disorders.  This type of affliction has typically been only treated without a full understanding of the causes or correlations with brain function.  Many of the methods she is currently using can yield new insight into the link between our brain’s working and the manifestation of debilitating symptoms.

Dr. David Cornelison has been working as an educator and scientist in Arizona and Missouri universities for the last 32 years. From 2010-2018, he was the head of the Department of Physics, Astronomy and Materials Science at Missouri State University. His research interests lie at the intersection of experimental condensed-matter physics and astrophysics, while his educational efforts have focused on outreach to the K-12 school system. Most of all, he believes in curiosity-driven learning in the sciences and all other fields.