Jan 07, 2026 - The Sober lab volunteers with Trees Atlanta
Members of the Sober lab spent a beautiful first Monday of 2026 volunteering with Trees Atlanta. This organization is a nonprofit community group that protects and improves Atlanta’s urban forest by planting, conserving and educating. The Sober team joined other Trees Atlanta volunteers to remove invasive plant species from the Eastside Beltline trail, which provides support for native species to populate the area.
Jan 07, 2026 - Leila Pascual successfully defended her PhD dissertation
On Nov. 19th, Leila Pascual successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Development of precise neural control during vocal learning in the juvenile songbird” in the presence of her dissertation committee, her mentor Sam Sober and many colleagues, family and friends. Leila has been a well-respected lab member, sharing her love for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying complex motor behavior, song birds, coffee and vintage bicycles. She was awarded the PhD from the Neuroscience Program at Emory University and will continue her academic journey as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Jan Marino (Nino) Ramirez’s lab at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Best of luck on your new adventures!
Aug 22, 2025 - Congratulations to the newly minted Dr. Sean O’Connell and Dr. Kyle Thomas!
Big congratulations go out to Sean O’Connell and Kyle Thomas who successfully defended their dissertation projects on July 11th and August 15th, respectively. Both students receive their PhDs from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.
Sean first joined the Sober lab as a research specialist in 2017 and matriculated into the BME graduate program in 2019. His interests include development of new computational and experimental methods for advancing the field of motor control and he was co-mentored in his dissertation project by Sam Sober, Professor of Biology, and Chethan Pandarinath, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering. He presented his dissertation work in a talk entitled “Methods for analysis of high-resolution muscle recordings during dynamic movement and generation of realistic motor unit datasets” in front of his friends, family and lab colleagues.
Kyle started in the Sober lab in 2020, after receiving a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and Systems Engineering from Washington University at St. Louis. He is passionate about open science and innovative technologies to study motor systems. He was mentored in his dissertation project by Sam Sober and presented this work in a talk entitled “Motor unit control of mouse locomotion” also in front of his friends, family and lab colleagues.
Both Sean and Kyle will stay in their respective labs for a brief postdoctoral fellowship prior to moving on to new adventures.
Apr 09, 2025 - César Vargas is named a 2025 Helen Hays Whitney Fellow
The Helen Hays Whitney Fellowship (HHWF) supports early-career postdoctoral fellows with the goal of increasing the number of imaginative, well-trained and dedicated medical scientists. The HHWF is highly competitive and provides support for three years of research. Congratulations César!
Apr 01, 2025 - Abi Grassler and Ethan Corey – congratulations on passing your Quals!
Congratulations to Abi Grassler and Ethan Corey who have both successfully passed their written and oral qualifying exams this spring and have moved into PhD candidacy. Specifically, they both passed Part II of the qualifying exam which consists of a written proposal for an original research project and an oral defense of that proposal. Ultimately the proposal forms the basis of their PhD dissertations. This milestone in a PhD career indicates that one has demonstrated adequate intellectual mastery of a field of specialization and of any appropriate supporting fields of study.
Nov 18, 2024 - The CAMBER team contributes to a Cajal course: “The Brain Prize Course: Movement and motor control in health and disease”
Members of the CAMBER team (Sam Sober, Amanda Jacob, and Kristen Frenzel) plus collaborators from University of Cologne, Graziana Gatto and Matthias Gruhn, and OpenEphys, Ceci Herbert were invited to run a project at the Cajal course in November 2024 in Bordeaux, France. The project was called “Advancing Neuroscience Research with Myomatrix Arrays: High-Resolution EMG Recordings in Freely Behaving Mice and Insects” and the team successfully taught students to surgically implant and record from mouse forelimb and hindlimb and locust wing depressor muscles. Sam gave a lecture and taught students about EMUsort in the spike sorting workshop.
Oct 30, 2024 - César Vargas contributes to NDiSTEM
The Society for Advancing Chicano/Hispanic and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) hosts an annual conference called the National Diversity in STEM (NDiSTEM) conference, which is the largest multidisciplinary and multicultural STEM diversity event in the country. César traveled to Phoenix, AZ to attend the conference and to contribute to the professional development of the attendees through judging posters and attending the networking lunches. To learn more about this organiation, click HERE to access their website.
Oct 11, 2024 - Annual Graduate Biology Academic Award goes to Leila May Pascual!
Congratulations (again) to Leila May Pascual who has been awarded the Graduate Biology Academic Award. The award was conceived in 2013 by Dr. Paul Orser, other alumni and emeritus faculty who completed their doctoral degrees in the Biology Department (prior to the start of the GDBBS). The award recognizes a pre-doctoral graduate student’s academic excellence and professional achievements and comes with bragging rights and a $2000 award. Leila will receive her award at the annual GDBBS Banquet on Oct. 10th.
Oct 10, 2024 - The Sober lab takes the annual SFN 2024 meeting by storm!
The Sober lab graduate students were well represented at the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) annual meeting in Chicago. Leila Pascual, Abi Grassler, and Will McCallum all presented posters. Sober advisees and CAMBER affiliated students Sean O’Connell, Jiaao Lu and Philip Anschutz also presented their research. The CAMBER booth was a huge success, which was in large part due to the everyone’s contributions to of time and energy. Thanks to Matt Williams, Amanda Jacob, Abi Grassler, Jiaao Lu, Philip Anchutz, Will McCallum, Kristen Frenzel and Sam Sober for working at the booth.
Sep 19, 2024 - Leila May Pascual is awarded the NIH D-SPAN (F99/K00) fellowship
Congratulations to Leila May Pascual who has been chosen to take part in the 2024 cohort of D-SPAN scholars. The purpose of this award is to support outstanding graduate students who are from diverse backgrounds, including those from groups that are underrepresented in neuroscience research, in the career transition between predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships. This two-phase award will facilitate completion of Leila’s doctoral dissertation in the Sober lab and provide funding and career development support as she moves into a competitive neuroscience research postdoctoral position.
Sep 18, 2024 - Will McCallum passes his doctoral qualifying exam.
Congratulations to Will McCallum who has successfully passed his written and oral qualifying exams and has moved into PhD candidacy. Specifically, on Sept. 18th, he passed Part II of the qualifying exam which consists of a written proposal for an original research project and an oral defense of that proposal. Ultimately that proposal forms the basis of his PhD dissertation. This milestone in his PhD career indicates that he has demonstrated adequate intellectual mastery of his field of specialization and of any appropriate supporting fields of study.
Sep 14, 2024 - The Science Gallery features Sober lab members’ research images in an new exhibition
Dr. Amanda Jacob, research scientist in the Sober lab, and a team of artists, musicians and research scientists have explored the brain’s amazing ability to change, particularly with respect to attitudes and actions to protect our planet, in a new exhibition at the Science Gallery. The centerpiece of the exhibition entitled “Thermal Reverberations” is a large polygonal brain sculpture covered with lenticular images that change as viewers move around it, symbolizing the brain’s adaptability. Amanda Jacob, Will McCallum, Abi Grassler, Kyle Thomas and Leila Pascual all contributed images that were incorporated into the sculpture. This exhibit is part of the Resilient Earth collection and is on view from Sept 2024 – April 2025.
Jul 31, 2024 - Aanya Vusirikala presents her research at SURE 2024 poster session
Aanya Vusirikala presented her research at the Emory Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) poster session held on July 31, 2024. Aanya is a undergraduate Quantitative Social Science (QSS) major with a concentration in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology (NBB) and is mentored by Sober lab neuroscience PhD student Leila Pascual.
May 12, 2024 - Anna Sotirescu graduated with Highest Honors from Emory College of Arts and Sciences
Congratulations to Anna! Anna Sotirescu did her undergraduate research under the mentorship of Dr. Amanda Jacob. She was a Biology major and completed an Honors thesis in her senior year. She defended her undergraduate thesis and earned “Highest Honors” for her written thesis and oral presentation. Anna will be continuing on to veterinary school in the fall.
May 02, 2024 - Will McCallum earns award from the Emory Neuroscience graduate program
Will McCallum, currently in his second year in the Emory Neuroscience graduate program, was recognized for his research activity by winning the Program’s “Early Scientific Achievement” award at the ceremony on May 2nd. Will is co-advised in his PhD program by Drs. Sam Sober and Paco Alvarez. Congratulations Will!
