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Sara M. Szczepanski
56 South Harrison Street, Apt. 2 Department of Psychology
Princeton, NJ 08540 Green Hall
609-240-6487 Princeton University
sszczepa@princeton.edu Princeton, NJ 08544
609-258-1480
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EDUCATION
Graduate Princeton University, Princeton, NJ Current 1st year student
Psychology PhD program Concentration: Cognitive Neuroscience
Courses: Proseminar in Neuroscience, Graduate- level statistics class
Undergraduate Colgate University, Hamilton, NY Class of 2001
Concentration: Behavioral Neuroscience Cumulative GPA: 3.86 (Summa Cum Laude)
Relevant Courses: Brain and Behavior, Cognitive Neuropsychology, Research Methods in Psychology,
Psychopharmacology, Neurophysiology, Cognitive Psychology, Seminar in Attention and Memory, Animal
Cognition, Psychophysics and Sensory Physiology, Psychopathology, Quantitative Methods in Behavioral Research
(Statistics), Advanced Statistical Methods, General Chemistry, Philosophy of Science.
HONORS Phi Beta Kappa: National Honor Society, which recognizes outstanding academic achievement and moral character
of graduating college seniors. Inducted May 2001.
High Honors in Neuroscience: Received high honors for completing and successfully defending senior thesis in
front of the psychology and neuroscience faculty.
Winner of the Edmonston Neuroscience Award: Given annually to the senior neuroscience concentrator who, in
the course of pursuing the major, demonstrates academic excellence and an outstanding quality of intellectual
curiosity. Awarded May 2001.
2000 Wolk Fellowship Winner: A $ 3500 grant awarded to an undergraduate student to conduct summer research at
Colgate University. Provided by Dr. Michael Wolk, Colgate University Board of Trustees. Allows for additional
support for further research and money to attend professional conferences or meetings.
Summer Workshop in Cognitive Science and Cognitive Neuroscience: One of 25 undergraduates chosen to
participate in the annual workshop sponsored by the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science at the University of
Pennsylvania. June 2000.
2000 Charles A. Dana Scholar: One of 25 students from the class of 2001 who distinguished themselves on the
basis of “superior academic achievement as well as demonstrated leadership in the college community”.
Psi Chi: National honor society for psychology. Inducted Spring 2000.
Phi Eta Sigma: National academic honor society of first-year students. Minimum GPA: 3.5 needed for induction.
Encourages service in the community.
Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence: 7 semesters. Awarded to students for achieving a GPA of 3.33 or above.
EXPERIENCE
Research Senior Honors Thesis: Research with Dr. Myra Smith and Dr. Douglas Johnson in the area of Cognitive
Neuroscience, Hemispheric Asymmetry for Recognition of Visually Perceived Concrete Objects. September 2001-
May 2001.
Research Assistant, with Dr. Douglas Johnson, in the area of Cognitive Psychology, studying Long- Term
Repetition Priming in memory. Fall ‘99- Spring 2000.
Internship, at Rainbow House, an outpatient facility run by Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center. Assisted Alicia
Davoli, director, and Dr. Kortylewska, psychiatrist. Observed and analyzed a number of disorders exhibited by
patients, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and clinical depression. Summer 1997.
Laboratory Current Graduate Research: Working with advisors Sabine Kastner and Charlie Gross. Studying the neural basis
of blind sight in humans and nonhuman primates. The Kastner lab focuses its research on the neural basis of selective
visual attention, in both humans and primates.
Neurophysiological Research: Three years participation in awake, behaving primate research at Krieger Mind-
Brain Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Serving as a research assistant to Drs. Kenneth Johnson and Takashi
Yoshioka. Studying the neural mechanisms of somatosensation. Participation includes: assisting with surgery,
training animals, experiment preparation and loading electrodes into matrix, and running of experiments (driving
electrodes, characterization of receptive fields, recording neurons). Fall 2001- Present.
Psychophysical Research: Currently assisting Dr. Francisco Vega-Bermudez (of John’s Hopkins Medical School)
with a number of psychophysical experiments studying tactile acuity of orientation changes. We hope to publish
these experiments in the near future. My involvement includes subject recruitment and testing, as well as analysis and
authorship. Fall 2001- Present.
Summer Undergraduate Research: Conducted with Dr. Jun Yoshino in the area of Neurochemistry: The role of
NGF and tricyclic antidepressants in mixed glial cells. Summer 2000.
Presentations J. Yoshino, T. Cooke, L. Powell, S. Szczepanski, C. Stewart, G. Seto, and G.E. Gogel. Antidepressants enhance
release of nitrite from mixed glial cultures. Journal of Neurochemistry,78 (Supplement 1), 2001.Presented at the
2001 International Society for Neurochemistry meeting.
T. Yoshioka, J.J. Lawson, P. Denchev, S. Szczepanski, A. Sripati, F. Vega-Bermudez, and K.O. Johnson.
Spatiotemporal receptive fields in SI cortex of the alert monkey. Soc Neurosci Abstr. 650.8, 2002. Presented at the
2002 Society for Neuroscience meeting.
A. Sripati, P. Denchev, S. Szczepanski, T. Yoshioka, and K. Johnson. Spatiotemporal Receptive fields from white
noise stimulation and complex orthogonal pattern stimulation in S1 cortex of the alert monkey. To be presented at
SFN 2004 meeting.
SKILLS Laboratory skills: Familiarity with electrophysiological and psychophysical methods (see above). Primary cell
culture, microscope proficiency, LDH, Nitrite, Western Blot, MDA and MTS assays, spectrophotometric analysis,
general histology (microtome use, mounting tissue, Nissl and Cytochrome oxidase staining, and
immunohistochemical analysis).
Computer skills: Excel (including some use of VBA), Word, Power Point, WordPerfect, SPSS, Sigma Plot,
ClarisWorks, Adobe Acrobat and Illustrator, Corel Draw, Matlab (somewhat limited). I also have extensive
experience with Reference Manager.
ACTIVITIES Crew Team: Men’s Varsity Coxswain for first three years of collegiate career.
Link Staff, Office of the Dean of First-Year Students, Colgate University. August 1999- May 2001. Guided a
group of first-year students through First Year Orientation. Served as a peer resource during their first year at
Colgate.
Colgate Symphony Orchestra, first violin. August 1997- May 2001.
Volunteer Colgate: Participation in the Food Salvage Program. Distributes uneaten food from area restaurants and
the Colgate dining halls to those in need. Fall 2000, Spring 2001.
Statistics 309 TA: Responsible for grading all homework and assisting with labs. Fall 2000, Spring 2001.
