Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience | Graduate College | The University of Iowa

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Study aspects of the human brain with top-notch researchers in the University of Iowa's Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience.

Director Spotlight

On location with Neuroscience Program Director Daniel Tranel, PhD

"Join the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Iowa and become part of the bright team of scientists trying to solve the mystery of the human brain."

Iowa Neuroscience Institute

Provides collaborative support for the neuroscience community.

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IDGP Neuroscience Events

ACB Seminar Series - Grace Gottschamer

Wednesday, October 7, 2026 9:30am to 10:30am

Bowen Science Building

Grace Gottschamer, an Interdisciplinary Graduate Student from the Dunnwald Lab will present a seminar titled " Irf6 and Epidermal Homeostasis."

ACB Seminar Series - Joy James

Wednesday, October 14, 2026 9:30am to 10:30am

Bowen Science Building

Joy James, a Cell and Developmental Biology Graduate Student in Sam Stephen's Lab will present a seminar titled "Proinflammatory Cytokines Induce Golgi Remodeling In Pancreatic Β-cells Beyond Inos-no Signaling."

Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Virtual Career Development Series - Neuroscience alumna, McCall Sarrett, PhD

Tuesday, October 27, 2026 11:30am

Virtual

🎓 Neuroscience Alumni Spotlight: McCall Sarrett, PhD ('20)

From Herky to Duo: A Career in the Cognitive Science of Learning

What can a PhD career look like beyond the traditional academic path?

Join the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Career Development Series for a conversation with McCall Sarrett, PhD ('20, Neuroscience), a University of Iowa graduate alumna who has built a career applying cognitive science and research in industry.

McCall is currently a Learning Scientist at Duolingo, where...

2026 Neuroscience Research Day Keynote Speaker: Constanza J. Cortes, PhD

Monday, November 2, 2026 1:00pm

Medical Education Research Facility

Keynote Speaker Announcement: Constanza J. Cortes, PhD
2026 Neuroscience Research Day – Monday, November 2, 2026

We are excited to welcome Constanza J. Cortes, PhD, Assistant Professor of Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, to the University of Iowa for this year's Neuroscience Research Day.

Dr. Cortes's research explores the intersection of exercise, brain aging, skeletal muscle, and Alzheimer’s disease, with a particular focus on how...

Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Program Thesis Defense Seminar: Angela Smith

Tuesday, November 10, 2026 11:00am

Medical Education Research Facility

Angela Smith is a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Graduate Program. Her research has been conducted in both Kathleen Sluka's and Stephanie Gantz's laboratories.

If you are unable to attend in person, please consider showing your support and attending via Zoom. Please email britt-hokanson@uiowa.edu for the zoom link.

Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Program Thesis Defense Seminar: Katelin Scott

Monday, November 30, 2026 10:00am

Medical Education Research Facility

Katelin Scott is a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Graduate Program. Her research has been conducted in Aislinn Williams' laboratory.

If you are unable to attend in person, please consider showing your support and attending via Zoom. Please email britt-hokanson@uiowa.edu for the zoom link.

Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Virtual Career Development Series - Genetics alumna, Kim Bekas, PhD

Tuesday, December 8, 2026 11:30am

Virtual

📣 Career Development Series: Finding Flexibility in a Career in Grantsmanship

Looking for a career path that keeps you connected to research while offering a different kind of flexibility after the PhD? Grantsmanship may be an option worth exploring!

The Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Office of Cancer Career Enhancement and Training is hosting the next session of its Career Development Series, featuring Kim Bekas, PhD (‘22 Genetics).

Kim currently serves as a Grants & Contracts Officer IV and...

Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Virtual Career Development Series - Neuroscience alumna, Amanda Bullert, PhD

Tuesday, January 12, 2027 11:30am

Virtual

Curious about where a PhD can take you beyond the traditional academic career path? Join the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Office of Cancer Career Enhancement and Training for an upcoming Career Development Series conversation featuring

University of Iowa alumna Amanda Bullert, PhD (‘23 Neuroscience)!

💻 “Careers in Research Computing: Data, Supercomputing & Beyond”

Amanda Bullert, PhD (‘23 Neuroscience)
Senior Research Data Consultant
Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain
University of...

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Outstanding Alumni

Alex Petrucci

Eric Emmons

Katelyn Joyal

9

DISSERTATION PRIZE WINNERS AWARDED BY THE GRADUATE COLLEGE. Joseph Parvizi, Michael Koenigs, and Benton Purnell (right), Katelyn Joyal EARNED THE SPRIESTERSBACH DISSERTATION PRIZE. Matthew Sutterer, Arianna Rigon, Banu Gumusoglu, Victoria Muller E

"The fact that I was able to perform at this level and do this work is representative of this program. The strength of the Neuroscience Program at the University of Iowa is what makes it such a destination program for people.”

Banu Gumusoglu, PhD
2020 winner, Rex Montgomery Dissertation Prize

Iowa Neuroscience Institute Events

2026 Neuroscience Research Day Keynote Speaker: Constanza J. Cortes, PhD

Monday, November 2, 2026 1:00pm

Medical Education Research Facility

Keynote Speaker Announcement: Constanza J. Cortes, PhD
2026 Neuroscience Research Day – Monday, November 2, 2026

Dr. Cortes's research explores the intersection of exercise, brain aging, skeletal muscle, and Alzheimer’s disease, with a particular focus on how...

Hawk-IDDRC Seminar Series featuring Maja Bucan, PhD: "Sleep and activity patterns in autism”

Friday, October 9, 2026 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Carver Biomedical Research Building

Please join us for our first Hawk-IDDRC Seminar of the academic year, featuring: Maja Bućan, PhD.
Professor, Departments of Genetics and Psychiatry; Co-director, Autism Spectrum Program Of Excellence, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Lurie Autism Institute, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and PennMedicine
Presenting: "Sleep and activity patterns in autism” Friday, October 9, 2026, Noon – 1pm CST in the Kelch Conference Room (CBRB 1289)
Lunch will be available for those who...

Pain Interest Group Seminar - Andrew Schrepf, PhD

Wednesday, October 7, 2026 9:00am to 10:00am

Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building

The neuroimmune interface in chronic pelvic pain

Andrew Schrepf, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Anesthesiology
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
University of Michigan

Neuroscience News

11th Annual Brain Bee Competition - Winners Announced

Friday, February 12, 2010

The 11th Annual Brain Bee Competition was held on Saturday, February 6th in 283 EMRB. The competitors were ready for the judges and quiz questions. After a number of rounds, the winner of the competition was Shairaz Sidhu from Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The second and third place winners were Michael Clapp - Regina Catholic Education Center and Ellenette Hiland - Iowa City West...

UI study finds second pathway to feeling heartbeat

Thursday, December 10, 2009

A new study suggests that the inner sense of our cardiovascular state, our "interoceptive awareness" of the heart pounding, relies on two independent pathways, contrary to what had been asserted by prominent researchers. The UNIVERSITY OF IOWA study was published online this week in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

UI researchers study brain's fear center

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The brain's fear center apparently has a built-in chemical sensor triggered by a primordial terror -- threat of suffocation.

Be remarkable - Dan Tranel

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

His graduate students simply call him Dan. Not Dr. Tranel. Not Professor Tranel.This isn’t a lack of respect for their mentor, one of the top neuroscientists in his field. They just see him as a normal guy who happens to have a 100-yard football field, complete with goal posts at each end, on his farm in southern Johnson County.

Campbell, Welsh renewed as Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Two researchers in the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine have been renewed for another five years as investigators of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Both researchers, Kevin Campbell, Ph.D., and Michael Welsh, M.D., have been HHMI investigators since 1989.

Khalsa, Rudrauf study how we sense our heartbeat (Science Magazine, Nov. 2)

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Some neuroscientists have pegged an area of the brain known as the insula, which helps us detect what's going on within our bodies. But an unusual case of a man with extensive damage to this region suggests that the insula cannot be the sole source of self-awareness. Tucked deep inside the brain, the insula responds to pain, a full stomach, changes in body temperature, and other internal...

American Heart Association honors UI's Sigmund

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Curt D. Sigmund, Ph.D., University of Iowa professor of internal medicine and molecular physiology and biophysics, received the 2009 Novartis Award for Hypertension Research. The American Heart Association's Council for High Blood Pressure Research sponsors the award. The award is the highest honor in hypertension research given annually by the association and Novartis. It recognizes outstanding...

Nopoulos, Wood research nature, nurture

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

A story about differences in the male and female brain points to recent research by PEG NOPOULOS, JESSICA WOOD and colleagues at the University of Iowa, which illustrates just how difficult it is to untangle nature and nurture, even at the level of brain structure.

Robinson: stroke can affect libido

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Dr. ROBERT G. ROBINSON, head of the department of psychiatry at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, said one of the most common causes for a drop in libido after a stroke is depression. "It occurs in about 40 percent of stroke patients during the acute period after a stroke and about 20 percent after the acute period."

Neuroscience at the Iowa State Fair

Thursday, August 20, 2009

The University of Iowa Neuroscience Graduate Program was the featured exhibitor at the Iowa State Fair on opening day, Thursday, August 13th at the University of Iowa booth.Attendees to the fair had the opportunity to play "Name That Brain" and "i-robot". Name That Brain shows the visual differences between human brains and those of other animals, focusing on what makes the human brain unique.i...