Women in the Sciences

Mapping the Brain and Other Adventures

"The scientific world is generally male dominated. One has only to look at the list of Nobel Prize winners to see evidence of the glass ceiling. Wellesley provides me with adequate tools not only as a scientist, but also as a woman. Needless to say, our labs are female dominated and there is a female-friendly atmosphere."
Katie '04

Katie has nearly unlimited access to Wellesley's MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) system for her research, a privilege she says even major research institutions cannot match. And not only does she have access to the instrumentation, but also she can tell you exactly how and why it works, something that even technicians who use the system every day can't always do.

Katie '04, who has lived in Georgia, Norway, and currently Las Vegas, uses MRI to map the neural tracts of the crayfish brain with a manganese contrast agent. By applying the manganese to nerve endings of optic nerves or antennae, MRI is used to follow the manganese back to their functional regions of the brain.

She explains, "Previous research suggested that the invertebrate brain was not as highly organized as ours is, where separate sections are used for different functions. We are interested in the specificity of the brain. For example, does a synapse from the olfactory antennule go only to the olfactory lobe? Or does it go to the optic lobe as well? We are testing this."

Her research also has taken her to faraway exotic places. For a tropical ecology class, she and other students lived on a small island off the coast of Belize to study reef habitats, and they visited Costa Rica to study rain forest ecosystems.

In Belize, they worked closely with three researchers from Belize and New Zealand. "We took a satellite phone and two weeks of supplies with us," Katie says, "and slept on mattresses on the floor in makeshift cabins."

Another research trip is planned for Siberia's Lake Baikal, one of the most pristine lakes in the world. Lake Baikal is host to the only freshwater species of seals and to 1,500 species of life found nowhere else on earth.

"I'm drawn to research because it's an individual pursuit and you have a professor who is in the top of her field who can advise you what to do next," she says. Katie adds that the opportunities for scientists are unique at Wellesley. "The scientific world is generally male dominated. One has only to look at the list of Nobel Prize winners to see evidence of the glass ceiling. Wellesley provides me with adequate tools not only as a scientist, but also as a woman. Needless to say, our labs are female dominated and there is a female-friendly atmosphere."