MCW Graduate Aspires to Make Science More Approachable

Francie Moehring, a senior neuroscience graduate student, is driven, bright and passionate about science. These qualities have served her well during her time at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). She has three first-author publications, is co-author on three additional papers, and has a fourth first-author manuscript in review for publication. She recently defended her dissertation on how our skin is involved in sensing touch and will graduate in May.

But don't expect Francie to leave MCW just yet. She plans to stick around through the summer so she can submit two more papers on her work, which was conducted in the lab of Cheryl Stucky, PhD, Professor of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy, and Director of the Neuroscience Doctoral Program. Then she will have time to think about her future. She hasn't made any plans yet, but she has some ideas.

"I want to make an impact somehow, and that might be more on the communication side of science, instead on the bench side," said Francie, who contributes regularly to a pain research blog and mentors high school students as well as junior graduate students. "I've noticed that it is sometimes hard for scientists to communicate our efforts effectively to scientists who are not in our field and to the general public, and I'd like to change that. I want to make science more approachable."

Francie, who grew up in Germany and moved to the United States when she was 17, was initially drawn to MCW after meeting Dr. Stucky, and said the environment "just felt right."

"MCW is a very collaborative environment, which is something you do not find at every institution," Francie said. "All of my first author publications involve the collaboration of at least one additional laboratory at MCW."