Community Spotlight #3: Bethany Lo
April 24, 2023
Bethany Lo is currently a lab manager at the Neural Plasticity and Neurorehabilitation Laboratory at the University of Southern California and was a learner in the 2022 ReproRehab cohort. She is interested in studying cognition and learning in older adults using neuroimaging analyses.
Tell us about your background.
I graduated with a B.S. in Neuroscience from Baylor University in 2019 after initially becoming interested in brain research during high school. Since then, I’ve mainly worked with Dr. Sook-Lei Liew at USC on stroke rehabilitation research, helping develop reproducible pipelines and manage large multi-site neuroimaging databases. I’ll be starting my PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at UC-Riverside this fall with Dr. Rachel Wu.
What sparked your interest in learning data science?
When I first learned that writing a few lines of code could save hours and hours of manual work! I took a statistics course during my undergraduate studies and truthfully didn’t enjoy it very much (perhaps because of the instructor). When I came to USC and starting using code on the actual data I was working on, it took on a whole new meaning. Data science is so cool!
What are you most excited about ReproRehab?
I learned so much as a learner in the 2022 cohort. It’s incredible to have connections with this network of researchers, especially at the beginning of my career. I’m also really excited to see ReproRehab answer the need for more reproducible practices and believe that this group is making an impact in the community.
Is there anything that you’re especially looking forward to doing with your newfound programming and data science skills?
I’m very thankful to be starting my graduate career with some programming skills and knowledge of reproducible science principles. I’m also looking forward to hopefully being able to share a bit of this knowledge with others in the future.
Anything you are passionate about outside of ReproRehab?
I consider myself an artist as well as a scientist, and really believe that art/creativity and science are mutually beneficial and not at all exclusive to particular “types” of people. I am currently experimenting in projects surrounding woodworking, wheel-throwing, and crocheting!
Anything else you would to share? (website/github/podcast)
I’d love to connect with you, please add me on LinkedIn!.
