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From rat-reward research on to doctoral program, Cazares among 23 MORE Program students
Psychology research student first in family to graduate from college
Already an award-winning researcher in behavioral psychology, Victor Cazares (Long Beach resident) will head to University of Michigan in Ann Arbor this month to pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience after completing his master’s degree in psychology at Cal State L.A.
Cazares, the first in his family to graduate from college, received first place in the behavioral and social sciences category for his presentation, “Orbitofrontal Cortex Lesions Impair Responses to Cue Predicting Shifts in Work to Reward in Rats,” at this year’s system-wide California State University Student Research Competition.
Cazares said, “When I came here and started working with Dr. Alicia Izquierdo, it just opened up my mind to the possibilities of research. There are so many opportunities here. The facilities are great, the faculty is supportive, and you get to go to conferences and get to interact with other researchers.
“I would say coming here just really made my career. I don’t see how I could be where I am now had I gone to another school,” he said. “We just have a big research tradition here. There are all kinds of opportunities to get involved in research.”
A recipient of a Minority Biomedical Research Support Fellowship and Michael Roffe Scholarship, Cazares received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Cal State L.A., after transferring from Orange County Community College.
Cazares is one of 23 students this year from Cal State L.A.’s Minority Opportunities in Research (MORE) Programs who have been admitted into prestigious doctoral programs. Other M.D.- or Ph.D.-bound grads—listed with their doctoral destinations—are as follows:
Franque Bains, UC Riverside
Danielle Barrios, UC San Diego
Benjamin Bush, SUNY at Binghamton
Carla Cueva, UC Berkeley
Monica Delgado, UC Davis
Ivy Donalson, University of Denver
Michelle Flores, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Erika Garcia, Caltech
Steven Gee, UC San Francisco
Angelina Hernandez, Indiana University
Laura Martinez, University of Washington
Celeste Mendoza, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Omar Moreno, UC Santa Cruz
Ann Munoz, USC
James Nunnelley, University of Hawaii, Manoa
Mario Nickening, UC Riverside
Maura Palacios, Texas A&M
Sergio Rivas, UC Riverside
Melissa Romero, USC
Nadine Rodriguez, UC Santa Barbara
Suzi Sanchez, USC
Abebayehu Yilma, USC
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