Dr. Sarah Leinwand received her bachelor’s degree in the Biological Basis of Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania and her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California San Diego. Her graduate studies, in the lab of Dr. Sreekanth Chalasani at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, investigated taste and smell neural circuits and behavior in C. elegans. She conducted her postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Kristin Scott at the University of California Berkeley. Sarah’s postdoctoral research probed the activity-dependent development of neural circuits for learning and memory. She characterized hormonal mechanisms that sculpt the maturation neural activity underlying learning in adult Drosophila. Among others, Sarah’s research has been funded by a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship, and an NIH BRAIN Initiative K99/R00 Career Transition Award. Sarah has also mentored undergraduates, a community college student, and first-year graduate students in the lab, taught neuroscience courses, and led numerous neuroscience outreach efforts to inspire K-12 students from groups underrepresented in STEM. Sarah cares deeply about continuously learning to be a more inclusive and effective teacher, and she looks forward to taking active role in supporting all of her students and trainees so that they may achieve their professional goals.

Please be in touch: sarah.leinwand AT gwu DOT edu