Cynthia He

This morning I read recent neuroscience publications and also process some of my older imaging data files.

I attend a lunch at the Faculty Club with a visiting speaker for the Joint Seminars in Neuroscience, and then I head to the Methods class. This seminar-format class is taken by the first-year neuroscience graduate students, and each week focuses on a different technique. After class I attend the Joint Seminar talk, then return to lab to finish up my work for the day.

I go for a workout at the graduate student gym, then return home for dinner.

I continue Monday’s experimental preparations and also talk with another lab member about some upcoming electrophysiology experiments.

I meet a friend for lunch on campus (lunch outdoors in January being one of the obvious perks of LA; picture of this lunch spot below), then return to lab for one of my imaging time-points. My project uses two-photon imaging to study spontaneous and evoked network activity in the somatosensory cortex, so I spend this afternoon on the microscope rig.

Tonight I improvise on a chocolate cake recipe by adding extra cocoa powder, egg, ricotta, and chopped walnuts.

I have breakfast with one of the undergraduate students working in the lab. She plans to apply to graduate school and is getting ready for the application cycle. The rest of the morning I spend working on data analysis.

More imaging.

I attend a dinner with some of the finalists interviewing for this year’s Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. I am a Soros Fellow from 2013, and it is always great to meet the new finalists and to reconnect with Fellows from earlier years.

Today is devoted to data analysis, reading, and email. I also touch base with my PI, Carlos Portera-Cailliau, and we discuss my current experiments.

Continuing the morning’s work, though at some point I get coffee and go for a walk around campus.

Yoga, dinner, and Skype.

Laundry and errands.

I meet up with some friends near downtown LA for “Trapped In A Room With a Zombie,” in which our group has an hour to try and solve various clues in order to “escape” from the [actor] zombie. We nearly but don’t completely solve all the clues and thus still get “eaten,” but regardless it’s entertaining.

Dinner with a friend at one of the many great Persian restaurants in Westwood. Later in the evening I call my parents, and finally I drop by a colleague’s party.

In lab for another experimental time-point.

I leave lab mid-afternoon and pick up groceries, then go for a run.

After cooking dinner with leftovers for weekday lunches, I organize my calendar for the week, write some cards, Skype, and unwind with some Netflix. (Picture taken from my apartment window.)