I am a passionate neuroscience researcher and pharmacologist with a primary career goal of treating mental illness and Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders from a biological perspective. Throughout my undergraduate career, I spent four years working in research laboratories investigating the neurobiological mechanisms of motivation, stress, reward, and addiction-driven behaviors. In the Moorman Lab at UMass Amherst, I wrote an Honors Thesis on addiction to demonstrate how dysregulation of the orexin/hypocretin neural network leads to abnormal reward-seeking behaviors. By mapping the intricate connections of these neurons to specific brain areas, neuroscientists and pharmacologists can better understand how to treat disorders of addiction, stress, and motivation that lead to obesity and drug dependancy.During a semester at the University of Melbourne, I conducted neuroscience research at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in the Addiction Neuroscience Laboratory (Lawerence and Brown labs) to investigate enkephalin neuron projections to the Bed Nucleus of Stria Terminalis that regulate stress and reward-seeking behaviors in mice. I also studied pharmacology in an advanced lecture-based class, as well as in a lab-based practical class, to learn how drugs are researched and developed throughout all phases from discovery to market.My passion for neurobiology and pharmacology research stems from my career goal of providing effective treatments for people struggling with psychiatric disorders, and my lifelong responsibility of ending the stigma of mental illness through neuroscience research and education.