Sandeep Kumar

Department: Princeton Neuroscience Institute
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Andrew Leifer
Year of Study: G4
Undergraduate School: University of Hyderabad
Undergraduate Major: Physics

Personal Bio

I was born and raised in India. I received my undergraduate and master's degree in Physics from the University of Hyderabad, India. I wanted to apply my computational and experimental skills to answer challenging biological questions. Hence, I joined M. Eng. Program in Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University, where I carried out whole-brain imaging of zebrafish larvae. After graduation, I worked as a research assistant at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in sunny San Diego for two years, where I studied olfactory circuit in zebrafish larvae in the lab and volunteered at the Birch Aquarium over the weekend. As a first-generation college student, I am passionate about teaching and mentoring related opportunities. At Princeton, I have also worked with Freshman Scholars Institute and Rocky college as Resident Graduate Student where I enjoyed interacting with my zees during the study breaks.

Fun Fact

I love tide pooling and exploring cool marine organisms in wild.

Research Pitch

As a fourth-year Neuroscience graduate student, I am interested in studying how sensory stimuli are processed by the brain. I am curious to understand how the brain generates different motor behaviors for the same sensory stimuli. I use C. elegans as a model organism to answer this question as they have 302 neurons making them one of the simplest model organism for neuroscience research. Some of the tools which I use in my research are: optogenetics, whole brain calcium imaging, behavioral recordings.

Plans for Summer 2022

Confirmed pairing; no longer looking for a mentee.