Gates Palissery is a PhD Candidate in the Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health program at Virginia Tech. Before coming to VT, she earned her B.S. in Neuroscience and Creative Writing from Carnegie Mellon University and worked as a lab manager at Northwestern University. Her interests in social behaviour and the brain led her to the labs of Drs Pearl Chiu and Brooks Casas, where her dissertation research focusses on risky social decision making in individuals with borderline personality disorder. She looks forward to pursuing a career that combines her passion for science communication and education with her scientific background. When she’s not in lab, Gates can be found training for her next marathon, working on her next novel, or geeking out about pretty much anything, especially The Flash and Moon Knight.