Alex Yonk is a fifth year PhD student in the Margolis Lab at Rutgers University. He received his B.S. in Psychology from the University of Iowa in the lab of Dr. Mark Blumberg, where he investigated how spontaneous REM-related sleep movements (twitches) in infant rodents drove the development of the sensorimotor system. Upon graduation, Alex immediately joined the Margolis lab and has since become a published author in the fields of corticostriatal and thalamostriatal connectivity as well as being awarded two grants: the New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJACTS) TL-1 Fellowship and the prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (NINDS F31). Currently, Alex leads multiple projects aimed at elucidating the functional and anatomical connectivity of corticostriatal and thalamostriatal inputs along with multiple collaborations with neighboring Rutgers labs. Finally, Alex is deeply committed to making science more accessible to all individuals through his multiple outreach approaches (Rutgers Science Explorer Bus, Journal of Emerging Investigators, and High School Lecture Series) at the local, state, national, and international levels.
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