FIU Department of Biomedical Engineering PhD candidate, Beatriz Herrera received the NIMH Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Individual Predoctoral Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (F31 – Diversity). This award supports promising doctoral candidates from diverse backgrounds who will perform dissertation research and training for a PhD degree in a scientific health-related field of study relevant to the mission of the NIMH. Herrera received this award through her work titled “Cortical microcircuit of performance monitoring: bridging multiscale neuronal activity and electrophysiological signatures in nonhuman primates”.

Beatriz Herrera is currently a Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at FIU. She is Advised by Dr. Jorge Riera who is the interim chair and associate professor for BME, and Dr. Jeffery D. Schall who is a Director and Visual Neurophysiology Professor for the Department of Biology in York University. Through their assistance, she is able to develop a simplified compartmental model of neocortical pyramidal cell capable of reproducing the main features of these neurons; Study patterns of laminar connectivity in SEF of macaque monkeys performing saccade countermanding task and understand the circuit accomplishment performance monitoring and executive control. Prior to working as a graduate research assistant, she was a graduate and undergraduate teaching assistant, as well as undergraduate research assistant, working up her way through these roles.