Faculty Scholar Awards are the highest honor bestowed by university faculty on undergraduates. The award was established to highlight students with an exceptional record of independent research and scholarship and who show promise of a scholarly career.
Leeman, one of three recipients this year, is a rising senior from Charlotte, NC, majoring in Neuroscience and Music. Her research explores connections between memory, emotion and music. She hopes to help people with paralysis communicate by investigating how the brain imagines different types of sounds.
Leeman says, "I have had the wonderful opportunity to explore my research interests as a Huang Fellow under Dr. Edna Andrews, through the Bass Connections Program, and as a part of the Summer Neuroscience Program with Dr. Tobias Overath. I am currently working on a project with the O-lab investigating whether EEG can be used to distinguish between the imagination of different types of sounds. I have also had the opportunity to explore my passion for music at Duke through composing, conducting, and performing with Duke's Opera Theater and Chorale. In the future, I plan to become a professor, hoping to implement evidence of lifelong musicianship’s ability to delay the symptoms of dementia to advocate for expanded music education."
Read more about Julia Leeman's research.
Department of Music
