My name is Victoria Ivanova Hones (she/her) and I am a 5th year PhD student at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. I created this website as a way to better connect non-sciencey folks with neuroscientific topics and break down new neuroscientific discoveries. This is especially important because, as a first generation college student, i see the significant gap in access to scientific knowledge and understanding. Many people, particularly those from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds, may feel intimidated by complex scientific concepts or believe that such knowledge is beyond their reach. The brain is super cool and it’s a shame that there is such a huge barrier to scientific understanding due to jargon in scientific writing. My hope is that practicing breaking down complex neuroscientific phenomena will also help me be more inclusive in my scientific writing, as well as contribute to making science more accessible to the general public. Additionally, I share some tips and tricks for surviving your graduate school journey with other students. I have been very fortunate to receive lots of help from other students, so I would like to pay it forward!

A little more about me—I am originally from Moscow, Russia. My family immigrated to the United States when I was eight in 2005. As a result of close family members and friends battling and losing their fight with addiction, I have always been very interested in the psychology of human behavior and the biological and environmental factors that drive us to make the choices that we make. This drove me to get involved in my community, specifically the houseless community in Seattle that is seriously struggling with addiction. Initially, I joined an organization helping to provide warm meals to the community—AOK Friends. I later joined a research team at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois that was interested in understanding the housing environments (scattered-site vs single-site) that better served the community. Meeting with the houseless community in Seattle on a weekly basis fostered in me a deep connection to my community. I understood that my next contribution was to better understand the workings of the brain. This is when I joined a laboratory led by Dr. Sheri Mizumori that seeks to understand how and what factors lead to our decisions and subsequent actions. If you would like to know more about my research, click here!

My hope is that my research will contribute to our scientific understanding of the brain and foster more understanding and compassion in society towards individuals suffering from addiction, as well as the houseless community. This, though, begins with connecting society with neuroscience!

You can reach me at honesvictoria@gmail.com.