Joseph Nuñez

I grew up in San Gabriel, California, surrounded by mountains and sun. Easy to find great Mexican food, In and Out Burger, or go jogging in February without having to wear a parka. I did my undergrad at the University of California, Irvine, (Biological Science Major), performing research in the lab of Dr. James McGaugh. I then decided to venture east and performed my graduate work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (yes, they are two separate towns). I received my PhD in the Neuroscience Program, doing my research in the lab of Dr. Janice Juraska. I looked at the development of the primary visual cortex, and the impact of sex and steroid hormone environment. I was then called even further east, working at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, in the lab of Dr. Margaret McCarthy. After four years on the East Coast, I have headed back to the Midwest and the Big Ten.

With Janice, I learned neuroanatomy, quantitative stereology and hippocampal-dependent behavioral analysis. With Peg, I learned primary cell culturing, ratiometric imaging, Western blot analysis and immunocytochemistry. I employ all these techniques, and collaborate with people like Dr. Lydia DonCarlos (Loyola University, Chicago) and Dr. Steve Levison (UMDNJ), to take advantage of their expertise, and am eager to acquire more techniques (such as patch clamping and other forms of cellular electrophysiology). My feeling is that the more techniques you know, the more routes by which a question can be tackled.

Mark Rothko, Albert Camus, Paul Klee, John Steinbeck and Kurt Vonnegut – put them in a blender, and voila, you have how I think.

In my spare time (which is limited, given I have a 6 month old baby), I love to play soccer, workout, travel, and drink good beer.

Some day I want to have a cute craftsman house in Solano Beach, CA, where my wife and I can walk to Pizza Port and enjoying our favorite beers while enjoy the wonderful North County weather.