The Transmitter, an online publication for the neuroscience community, selected Valerie Sydnor, a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Pittsburgh’s laboratory of neurocognitive development, as one if its Rising Stars of Neuroscience. This recognition honors promising researchers shaping the field of neuroscience.
Sydnor’s research aims to chart how neurodevelopmental plasticity—the brain’s ability to change and adapt—unfolds spatially and temporally across the developing youth cortex. Her work focuses on identifying the specific biological and environmental regulators that determine critical periods of brain development, allowing for a deeper mechanistic understanding of human brain maturation. Her long-term goal is for her research to help develop interventions for youth that promote resiliency and can be delivered while the brain is in a period of malleability.