Lina Nerio Morales inaugural Fulbright recipient of Hodgie Bricke Memorial Scholarship

Lina Nerio Morales, a graduate student from Colombia, was the first international Fulbright grantee to receive the Hodgie Bricke Memorial Scholarship.

The Hodgie Bricke Memorial Scholarship honors the legacy of Margaret "Hodgie" Bricke, who was the Fulbright foreign student adviser at KU for many years and a strong supporter of and advocate for the Fulbright program. The fund supports travel to conferences and professional meetings where international Fulbright graduate students are presenting their research or creative works.

Nerio holds a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the National University of Colombia and a master’s degree in pharmacology and toxicology from KU. She is continuing at KU to pursue a doctoral degree in the same program.

The scholarship covered the cost to travel to San Diego in November so Nerio could present a paper at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting. Her presentation was on social defeat and oxytocin regulation of social avoidance and stress-related signaling proteins in female prairie voles.

Nerio’s research is focused on behavioral neuroscience, particularly in the study of social defeat as a risk factor for the development of social deficits such as anxiety and schizophrenia. At the conference, which brought together brain and nervous system scientists from around the world, Nerio had the opportunity to learn and create networks that will support her future academic projects.