On Tuesday, the Cognitive Communication Science Lab (CCSL) took over a long table on the patio at Mamma in downtown Davis. Between plates of appetizers and the main course, we paused to reflect on a year that gave us plenty of reasons to toast.
Celebrating our Seniors
Our two fourth‑year undergraduates, Valerie Klein and Sophia Sarieva (both majors in Neurobiology, Physiology & Behavior) graduate this June. Valerie will spend her gap year in clinical settings to prepare for a joint MD/PhD in neuropharmacology; Sophia is embarking on a research year before beginning her own PhD in neuropharmacology. As a capstone to her time in the lab, Valerie has earned the rare honor of delivering an oral presentation at UC Davis’s ASPIRE Symposium, hosted by the Center for Mind & Brain.
Graduate‑Student Milestones
Our graduate students reached their own milestones: Ziyu Zhao finished her first year, Rachael Kee completed her second, and Allyson Snyder closed out her fourth. Each lead complicated projects including fMRI and EEG data collections, as well as a VR project on children in a local science museum!
Scholarly Reach
CCSL scholarship traveled widely this season. Lab projects appeared on the programs of the International Communication Association, Social and Affective Neuroscience Society, Association for Psychological Science, and our own Communication Horizons conference. Several new papers are already in press, with lab members taking prominent authorship.
New Digs, New Data
We also cut the ribbon on a brand‑new EEG laboratory, opening doors to fresh cross‑disciplinary work on fairness, decision making, attention, and more. Keep an eye on this space, we have several studies that are already queued up for the coming academic year.
None of this happens alone. Thank you to every student, collaborator, and friend of the lab who made 2024‑25 both productive and fun. I can’t wait to see where the next year takes us.
Richard Huskey, Director, Cognitive Communication Science Lab