{"id":134902,"date":"2026-03-18T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/?p=134902"},"modified":"2026-03-18T10:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T14:27:11","slug":"how-surfin-fellowships-jump-started-these-3-neuroscience-students-stem-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/2026\/03\/18\/how-surfin-fellowships-jump-started-these-3-neuroscience-students-stem-careers\/","title":{"rendered":"How SURFiN Fellowships Jump-Started These 3 Neuroscience Students\u2019 STEM Careers"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":135200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_type-article"],"acf":{"block_editor":[{"acf_fc_layout":"image","type":"image_medium","image":135135,"title":"Florence Gathoni Njoroge holds a slide containing 10-\u00b5m zebra finch brain sections while performing RNAscope, a technique used to visualize gene expression at the cellular level. ","caption":"Kevin Shimizu, Pederick Lab","caption_full":"","less_margin":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"An opportunity and mentorship can shape an undergraduate student\u2019s future, as three former fellows of the Shenoy Undergraduate Research Fellowships in Neuroscience (SURFiN)<\/a> experienced firsthand. The program provides students with the opportunity to conduct research in a lab funded by the Simons Foundation\u2019s Autism & Neuroscience division, opening the door for paid, hands-on experience that the students might not otherwise be afforded.\r\n\r\nA chance opportunity with a biochemistry assignment sent Florence Gathoni Njoroge down a rabbit hole that led her to a SURFiN Fellowship and ultimately landed her a job in a neuroscience lab at Johns Hopkins University. A professor\u2019s comment about applying math to brain studies prompted Alex Negr\u00f3n to begin thinking about conducting research. For Faith Cerbo, a scientist\u2019s encouragement sparked her interest in neurological diseases. Their stories below show how opportunities created through the SURFiN Fellowship can propel careers.\r\n

Florence Gathoni Njoroge (Class of 2024\u201325)<\/h2>\r\nGathoni Njoroge\u2019s rabbit hole was a literature review about transcription factors involved in Alzheimer\u2019s disease \u2014 a homework assignment at Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she was studying. \u201cIt was the beginning of my curiosity about how the brain works,\u201d she says. She came across the SURFiN Fellowship Program on the career networking site Handshake and landed in a social neuroscience group run by Gabriela Rosenblau at George Washington University.\r\n\r\nRosenblau, an investigator with the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative<\/a> (SFARI), studies how adults and children learn about and form relationships. Gathoni Njoroge grew up in Kenya, where all her potential role models in science were men. Seeing so many women in Rosenblau\u2019s group \u201cwas empowering,\u201d Gathoni Njoroge says. She went on to help analyze a dataset to study how adults with autism form and use social knowledge.\r\n\r\nDuring a virtual networking event for the SURFiN Fellowship, Gathoni Njoroge met Daniel Pederick. Pederick, another investigator supported by SFARI, was starting up his lab at Johns Hopkins and needed technicians. Since August 2025, Gathoni Njoroge has been working in Pederick\u2019s lab looking at how brains are wired for processing sounds. She\u2019s learned how to analyze RNA activity in mouse brains; next she hopes to study songbirds. It\u2019s clear to her now that she wants to get a Ph.D. in neuroscience. She\u2019s still searching for the right subdiscipline before applying to graduate school.\r\n\r\nShe credits the fellowship and a supportive community for her career successes. \u201cI would not have been able to do this myself,\u201d she says. Her advice to would-be fellows: \u201cJust apply, because you never know. It\u2019s a way to put your foot in the door.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"

Alex Negr\u00f3n (Class of 2021\u201322)<\/h2>\r\nNegr\u00f3n put his foot in the door when a notice about the SURFiN Fellowship showed up in his email. Negr\u00f3n was majoring in mathematics at Illinois Institute of Technology. He says that he had been mildly curious about his adviser\u2019s interest in a neuroscience project, but \u201cit had never occurred to me that there might be math in neuroscience.\u201d During the fellowship, he worked with Brent Doiron, an investigator with the Simons Collaborations on the Global Brain<\/a>, at the University of Chicago. There, he developed a mathematical model to explain an apparent paradox in the function of two groups of neurons in the mouse visual cortex. He was the first co-author on the resulting 2024 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em><\/a>.\r\n\r\nBefore the fellowship, Negr\u00f3n had been toying with going into quantitative finance, a career with high earning potential, but \u201cin the course of doing this project, I realized I liked doing research.\u201d Yet he didn\u2019t feel ready to enter a Ph.D. program, so he began a post-baccalaureate fellowship with Ila Fiete in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Fiete\u2019s new lab was applying machine learning to the field, and\u00a0 Negr\u00f3n spent two years exploring the modularity of artificial neural networks.\r\n\r\nThat work influenced him to pursue a Ph.D. in applied and computational mathematics at Princeton University under the supervision of Boris Hanin. \u201cI like to think about high-dimensional systems,\u201d whether artificial or the brain, Negr\u00f3n explains. \u201cThere are common mathematics in all of these.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe credits his SURFiN Fellowship with providing great mentors who taught him the importance of clearly presenting his research and who got him started on this path: \u201cIf there were no programs like this, people like me would not be in grad school.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","type":"image_medium","image":135136,"title":"Alex Negr\u00f3n presenting at research at the SURFiN Symposium held at the Simons Foundation's offices in New York City.","caption":"Emily Tan\/Simons Foundation","caption_full":"","less_margin":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"

Faith Cerbo (Class of 2024\u201325)<\/h2>\r\nFor her SURFiN work, Cerbo wanted to find a lab that would enable her to dive more deeply into molecular genetics so she could apply her undergraduate training to neuroscience. Through SURFiN she was matched to work in Bernardo Sabatini's lab at Harvard. Sabatini is an investigator with the Simons Collaboration on Plasticity and the Aging Brain (SCPAB)<\/a> and the Simons Collaborations on the Global Brain<\/a>, and the lab uses several approaches to understand how brain circuits develop and change through learning. While finishing her undergraduate degree at Boston University, Cerbo worked with postdoctoral researcher Tomasz Kula. Already, the lab had\u00a0genetically\u00a0engineered a mouse strain whose DNA could be reliably altered, and Cerbo perfected the methodology for modifying genes of interest.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s a novel tool for researchers to analyze gene interactions in the brain,\u201d she explains. She demonstrated that the technique worked with a proof-of-concept experiment, and then continued to optimize the protocols.\u00a0The technique allows the study of multiple interactions within a single mouse \u2014 something that\u2019s been very challenging.\r\n\r\nThis accomplishment aligns with what a survey course in psychology and brain science revealed to Cerbo about the broad array of technologies needed to understand neuroscience. At the time, \u201cI found myself really drawn to the different techniques and protocols to better understand the brain and behavior,\u201d she recalls. A discussion about doing research with her teacher, Steve Ramirez, pointed her to the SURFiN program and other extracurricular activities. This proved formative.\r\n\r\nAs her Boston University graduation approached, Cerbo applied for multiple technician positions that would enable her to continue her molecular biology work. \u201cI got a lot out of my year\u201d at Harvard, she says. \u201cI gained confidence in myself as a researcher.\u201d\r\n\r\nShe had several job offers and opted to join a lab at Albert Einstein College of Medicine focused on HIV therapeutics. Her SURFiN experience prepared her well for this job, she says. The Harvard lab used Benchling, an online platform for lab note-taking and data sharing, as does her new lab, and her work at Harvard taught her how to troubleshoot problems in basic research techniques such as PCR and cloning.\r\n\r\nIn fall 2026, Cerbo will start at the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. She hopes to join a neuroscience lab there where she can continue translational research and work on specific diseases.\r\n\r\n\u201cA great neuroscience researcher has the ability to think outside the box, and can step back and think systematically\u201d about failed experiments, Cerbo explains. \u201cHaving a blend of hope and realism when it comes to research, especially in neuroscience, is incredibly important.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","type":"image_medium","image":135137,"title":"Faith Cerbo presenting at research at the SURFiN Symposium held at the Simons Foundation's offices in New York City.","caption":"Emily Tan\/Simons Foundation","caption_full":"","less_margin":false}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134902"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135236,"href":"https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134902\/revisions\/135236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}