Maureen Sampson (she/her) joined Steven Sloan’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow in the fall of 2020. Her research focuses on the neurodevelopmental toxicity of the heavy metal lead (Pb) and is currently funded by a K00 through NIEHS as well as an enrichment fellowship from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Maureen earned her PhD at UCLA where she studied serotonin neuromodulation of visual circuits in Drosophila. As a graduate student, Maureen wrote successful applications for both the NSF GRFP and NINDS F99, which sparked her interest in scientific writing. She worked at the UCLA graduate writing center as a writing consultant and presented workshops on grantsmanship and scientific writing. The enthusiasm for writing continues and this year she co-organized a 3-day writing retreat for the Sloan Lab in the GA mountains.

Before graduate school, Maureen worked as a chemist in the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) Laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, quantifying VOCs in biological and environmental samples including water, urine, blood, materials, and machine-generated tobacco smoke. These measurements were used for human exposure assessment in national biomonitoring surveys (e.g., NHANES), regional investigations (e.g., Corpus Christi fracking site, Deepwater Horizon oil spill), and toxicology studies. During grad school, Maureen’s free time was spent hiking in the LA mountains, teaching step aerobics at the UCLA gym, and going to Beyonce concerts. These days Maureen enjoys gardening, running, walking the neighborhood with her husband Tim, and cuddling with her cat Cleo.