Lauren O'Connell (scientist)

Lauren O'Connell is an American chemist who is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Stanford University. Her research considers how animals handle challenges in their environment. She received a L'Oréal-USA For Women in Science fellowship in 2015.

Lauren O'Connell
Born
Texas
Alma materCornell University
Tarrant County College
Scientific career
InstitutionsHarvard University
Stanford University
ThesisEvolution of neuroendocrine mechanisms regulating adaptive behavior (2011)

Early life and education

O'Connell is from rural Texas.[1] She grew up on a goat farm in a family of six.[1] She has said that growing up on a farm and working with animals made her enthusiastic about science.[2] After high school, she attended Tarrant County College, where she spent two years before joining Cornell University.[2] At Cornell, she became interested in animal behavior from a mechanistic perspective. After completing her undergraduate degree, she moved to the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied social networks in Cichlid fish with Hans Hofmann.[2]

Research and career

Whilst a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, O'Connell studied poison dart frogs in the Amazon rainforest.[3] She had become interested in the evolution of parental care in an animal clade that had a lot of variation in reproductive strategies.[2] During her postdoctoral research, she founded the “Little Froggers School Program”, a scheme which supports K–12 teachers in learning more about amphibians.[3] At Harvard, she held a Bauer Fellowship.[2]

O'Connell joined the faculty at Stanford University in 2017. Her research considers genetic and environmental contributions to the behavior of poison frogs.[4] O'Connell noted that maternal behavior has only evolved once in mammals, and wanted to identify whether there were different ways to build a maternal brain.[5] She identified that mother frogs transfer their poisons to their offspring in an effort to provide some chemical defences to their young tadpoles.[5][6][7]

Awards and honors
  • 2014 L'Oréal-USA For Women in Science Fellowship[3]
  • 2016 Changing Face of STEM Mentorship award[2]
  • 2018 Frank A. Beach Early Career Award[8]
  • 2018 Hellman Faculty Fellow[9]
  • 2019 Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences[10]

Selected publications
  • Lauren A O'Connell; Hans A. Hofmann (1 December 2011). "The vertebrate mesolimbic reward system and social behavior network: a comparative synthesis". The Journal of Comparative Neurology. 519 (18): 3599–3639. doi:10.1002/CNE.22735. ISSN 0021-9967. PMID 21800319. Wikidata Q37907986.
  • Lauren A O'Connell; Hans A. Hofmann (1 June 2012). "Evolution of a vertebrate social decision-making network". Science. 336 (6085): 1154–1157. doi:10.1126/SCIENCE.1218889. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 22654056. Wikidata Q48486705.
  • Catherine Dulac; Lauren A O'Connell; Zheng Wu (14 August 2014). "Neural control of maternal and paternal behaviors". Science. 345 (6198): 765–770. doi:10.1126/SCIENCE.1253291. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 4230532. PMID 25124430. Wikidata Q34433621.

Personal life

O'Connell completed a professional training qualification in culturally aware mentorship to be able to better support students from historically marginalized groups.[1]

References
  1. "Lauren A. O'Connell | Laboratory of Organismal Biology". oconnell.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  2. "Early career researchers: an interview with Lauren O'Connell". Journal of Experimental Biology. 220 (13): 2303–2305. 2017-07-01. doi:10.1242/jeb.163543. ISSN 1477-9145. PMID 28679788. S2CID 4386769.
  3. admin (2014-11-10). "Harvard biologist Lauren O'Connell among winners of science fellowship". Cambridge Day. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  4. "Toxin Sponges May Protect Poisonous Frogs and Birds From Their Own Poisons, Study Suggests". www.newswise.com. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  5. University, Stanford (2019-11-21). "Motherly poison frogs shed light on maternal brain". Stanford News. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  6. Jones, Benji (2021-05-26). "These frogs need poison to survive. Humans are messing with their supply". Vox. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  7. "Why poison frogs don't poison themselves". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  8. "Society of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology". SBN. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  9. "Hellman Fellows Fund" (PDF). Hellman Fellows. 2020. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  10. "Lauren O'Connell". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
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