David Melendez-Perdomo | STARTneuro Alumnus

Background: I am a hispanic male who was born and raised in San Diego. I recently started my Ph.D in Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Austin. I enjoy hiking, playing games, and eating/cooking good food.

Post-graduation journey: Post-graduation, the first thing I did was celebrate by going to Japan! After enjoying a brief break, I eventually moved away from San Diego for the first time to Austin, Texas.

What are you doing now?  I am currently a Ph.D student in Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Austin doing my second rotation in the Natividad Lab. The lab looks at behavioral and molecular changes when rats undergo alcohol withdrawal. Most of my current work has been on refining a method using HPLC to quantify glutamate levels present in brain tissue and dialysate samples.

A few words about STARTneuro: STARTneuro gave me the ability to develop close connections with faculty and peers that I believe will persist throughout my career.  These connections have proved fruitful from the get-go, with my joining of the Stowers lab being through a STARTneuro-hosted talk given by a graduate student whom I later worked with. Further down the line, having people with such a wealth of knowledge in the field helped me dramatically when it came to developing myself as a strong graduate school applicant.