Meet UC Davis Graduate Student Alexia Williams

• Department
  Psychology
   
• Program and year of study
  Ph.D (Biological Psychology)
   
• Previous degrees and colleges
  BS Biology, UMass
   
• Where did you grow up?
  Western Massachusetts
   
• Where do you live now?
  Davis
   
• What's your favorite spot in Davis?
  Taqueria Davis. Best burritos in town.
   
• How do you relax?
  I’m big on gaming. I find that video game-induced stress is a good distraction from real life stress. I also bake (sometimes) and run (occasionally).
   
• What was the last book you read for pleasure?
  1Q84 by Haruki Murakami—10/10 would recommend 
   
• What TV show are you currently binge-watching?
  It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Americans
   
• Research interests
  A major symptom of depression is no longer finding pleasure in activities you once enjoyed. I’m really interested in understanding which specific microcircuits in our brain are responsible for our motivation to seek out the things we want and how those microcircuits are changed (on both molecular and genetic levels) following stressful experiences or in psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety.
   
• Dissertation title or topic
  It’ll likely be focused on mapping and manipulating microcircuits within our brain’s reward system in order to understand their influence on our motivation to seek out sociality.
   
• Please share a surprising or noteworthy fact or finding from your research
  Everyone knows of oxytocin as this pro-social “love hormone”. Research from our lab suggests that this may not actually be the case. This is a vast oversimplification, but it seems that the effects of oxytocin on behavior are context-specific (meaning that more oxytocin in a negative environment can negatively influence behavior, as opposed to bettering it). For example, in rodents we see this as oxytocin inducing social withdrawal as opposed to social approach following stressful experiences. We’re now trying to dive more in to the molecular aspects of how and why this happens.
   
• Which professor or class inspired you to pursue graduate studies?
  Believe it or not, cell biology. I was really excited by signaling cascades. Then I moved on to neurobiology and got really interested in this idea that there are distinct groups of cells communicating with each other to control distinct aspects of so much of what we do.
   
• Which scholarly text do you wish you had written? Why?
  On the Origin of Species. It’s the foundation of everything.  
   
• What's the best thing about being a grad student?
  Setting your own schedule. 
   
• What's the worst?
  Feeling guilty about the schedule you set for yourself.
   
• If you weren't a grad student, what would you be doing?
  I am really in to digital art and I like to think that in another world I’m designing and animating characters for video games.
   
• Finally, please ask yourself a question - "What’s one thing you haven’t done that you should do?"
  Learn Spanish. I’m mostly Puerto Rican and my Spanish is barely intermediate. It’s pretty embarrassing.
   

Graduate student profile courtesy of the UC Davis College of Letters and Science.

About Graduate Studies

Graduate Studies at UC Davis includes over 100 dynamic degree programs and a diverse and interactive student body from around the world. Known for our state-of-the-art research facilities, productive laboratories and progressive spirit – UC Davis offers collaborative and interdisciplinary curricula through graduate groups and designated emphasis options, bringing students and faculty of different academic disciplines together to address real-world challenges.

UC Davis graduate students and postdoctoral scholars become leaders in their fields: researchers, teachers, politicians, mentors and entrepreneurs. They go on to guide, define and impact change within our global community.

For information on Graduate Studies’ current strategic initiatives, visit the Graduate Studies strategic plan page.