Prelims passed
Monica Duran passed her initial prelims for the PhD portion of her MD-PhD program. She submitted the grant for this work in early March. She plans to look at brain correlates of the arousal network, …
May 13, 2025
Congratulations, Dr. Skaletski!
Emily Skaletski successfully defended her dissertation on Monday, April 14 at the Waisman Center. Following graduation, she will continue her research career at Northwestern University with a Community Living & Participation Fellowship, funded by NIDILRR, …
April 30, 2025
Community presentation
MD–PhD student, Monica Duran and undergraduate, Jacqueline Cano gave a presentation on research in the Motor and Brain Development Lab to a Spanish-speaking audience at the Catholic Multicultural Center early in the Spring 2025 semester.
April 24, 2025
Two recent awards
At the 2025 Gatlinburg Conference, Monica Duran and Olivia Surgent received two of six trainee awards of excellence. Monica received the David Zeaman Graduate Student Award, and Olivia was honored with the Theodore Tjossem Postdoctoral …
April 24, 2025
Brittany presents a flash talk at the State Capitol!
Brittany recently went to the Wisconsin State Capitol to do an 8-minute flash talk on the lab’s different research areas. Interested in watching her talk? Visit this page and make a free account! …
April 19, 2024
Brittany presents at the Alabama Autism Conference!
Brittany recently had the opportunity to speak at the Alabama Autism Conference in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where she did her PhD work many years ago. Her talk was on how motor skills and …
March 11, 2024
Lab members present at the Society for Neuroscience 2023 conference!
Three current and former lab members presented work at the 2023 Society for Neuroscience conference in Washington D.C.! From left to right: Sonali Naik, former undergraduate research assistant, presented on postural stability. Her project found …
December 7, 2023
Dr. Travers presents at Scientific Symposium for the Waisman’s 50th Anniversary event!
With the Waisman Center turning 50 years old this year, a Scientific Symposium was held that featured researchers from inside and outside of the Waisman community. Our very own Dr. Brittany Travers gave a talk …
September 25, 2023
Farewell, Dr. Surgent!
Earlier this month we said farewell to our beloved Dr. Olivia Surgent, who received her PhD this past December. Olivia will be working as a T32 Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California – Davis …
August 31, 2023
Meet Monica, our newest PhD student!
This fall, we are welcoming a new MD-PhD student to our lab, Monica Duran! Originally from Puerto Rico, she moved to Madison, WI in 2020 for the start of the MD-PhD program at UW. She’s …
August 24, 2023
Welcome back, Brittany!
After 8 months of learning at the University of Málaga and traveling, Brittany is back! Brittany taught classes at the university and learned all about new ways to measure movement of the body. While she …
August 17, 2023
Emily Skaletski receives award at Occupational Therapy Summit of Scholars conference
Last week our very own Emily Skaletski was one of two winners of the best student poster at the Occupational Therapy Summit of Scholars conference! The event was held in Columbus, Ohio where she presented …
June 26, 2023
Lab leadership rendezvous in Stockholm!
This week our post-doctoral fellow Dr. Olivia Surgent, PhD candidate Emily Skaletski, and PI Dr. Brittany Travers met up in Stockholm, Sweden. They visited the Nobel prize museum, saw the Royal Palace, and generally took …
May 9, 2023
Dr. Olivia Surgent presents poster at INSAR
Dr. Olivia Surgent presented her poster this week at the annual meeting for the International Society for Autism Research in Stockholm, Sweden! Her presentation highlighted the unique sensorimotor pathways for grip strength in the brain …
May 8, 2023
URS Student Presentations
Our Undergraduate Research Scholar (URS) students had their presentations last week at Union South! Susan Lei, Lauren Salmi, Madelyn Scheid, and Roselyn Pacheco presented our Brainy Movement Study for Kids to the program …
May 2, 2023
Dr. Travers shares our work and visits strengths-based school for autistic individuals in Barcelona
As a part of Dr. Travers’ Fulbright scholarship work in Malaga, Spain, she has the opportunity to travel and share our research with others. Last week she had the privilege of visiting Carrilet, …
February 6, 2023