Gabrielle Lockett RSBS Summer Scholar

Gabrielle is from Otago University in New Zealand, where she has just completed her BSc with Honours. Gabrielle heard about the Summer Scholarship Program through Otago. “Summer scholarships in general seem a good opportunity to keep one's mind on science over the holidays, but the ANU one stood out as offering so much - work at a prestigious university, not to mention free board, food and flights!”, Gabrielle says.

Gabrielle's project was on behaviour in the honey bee, and exploring the neural mechanisms of reward processing. The project assesses addiction behaviour, using cocaine. The honey bee offers a unique opportunity to study addiction behaviour outside conventional model organisms (such as the mouse), as bees have a symbolic dance language. Bees use this dance language to report how valuable a resource is - and so provide a way to gauge fluctuations in their opinions of resource value.

Gabrielle's career aspirations are definitely academic. She has an innate curiosity and a love of learning, which she believes will extend into scientific research.

For anyone considering doing a summer scholarship at ANU Gabrielle says, “Definitely do it! If not solely for the academic experience, then certainly for the social aspect at Burgmann. The fact that some scholars have come back for another summer really says it all."

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