Frances Champagne facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Frances A. Champagne
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| Alma mater | Queen's University (BA) McGill University (MSc) (PhD) |
| Occupation | Professor, Psychology, University of Texas at Austin |
| Awards | NIH Director's New Innovator Award |
Frances A. Champagne is a Canadian psychologist and a university professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She is well-known for her studies on how our experiences can change our brains and behavior. Her research looks into areas like molecular neuroscience (how the brain works at a tiny, molecular level), maternal behavior (how mothers act), and epigenetics.
Epigenetics is a fascinating field. It explains how your environment and experiences can actually change how your genes work, without changing the genes themselves. Think of it like turning genes on or off, or turning their volume up or down. Dr. Champagne's work has shown how different ways mothers care for their babies can lead to these epigenetic changes. These changes then affect how the babies grow and behave later in life.
She has won important awards for her work, like the NIH Director's New Innovator Award in 2007. People have even called her "the bee's knees of neuroscience," which means she's really good at what she does! She also helps guide efforts to improve the mental and emotional health of young people in the United States.
Learning and Teaching
Frances Champagne started her journey by earning a bachelor's degree in psychology from Queen's University, Canada. She then went to McGill University in Canada for her graduate studies. There, she earned both her master's degree in Psychiatry and her PhD in Neuroscience. During this time, she learned a lot from her mentor, Michael Meaney.
After her studies in Canada, Dr. Champagne moved to England. She completed her postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge. Here, she focused on animal behavior, learning how animals interact with their environments.
In 2006, she became a professor at Columbia University in New York City. She taught there for many years, eventually becoming an Associate Professor. She even served as the Vice Chair of the Psychology Department for a while. In 2017, she joined the University of Texas at Austin as a full professor in the Psychology Department. She still keeps a connection with Columbia University as an adjunct professor.
As a professor, she teaches exciting courses. These include classes on how the brain develops, how epigenetics affects behavior, and the ethics of genetics and the brain.
Exploring Brain and Behavior
Dr. Champagne's research focuses on several key areas. One big part of her work is understanding the neurobiology of the parental brain. This means she studies how the brain changes when someone becomes a parent. She looks at why different parents behave in different ways. She also studies how the environment affects these brain changes.
Another major interest is how epigenetic changes happen because of how mothers interact with their babies. She wants to know how these changes appear based on the early interactions between mothers and infants.
She also researches how things that happen before birth can affect a baby's development. For example, she studies how being exposed to stress, harmful chemicals, or different foods during pregnancy can change a baby's brain.
Dr. Champagne also explores how fathers influence mothers and their children. She looks at the epigenetic ways these family interactions play out. She is also interested in finding ways to help children overcome bad experiences from early in life. She investigates the epigenetic changes that help kids become strong and bounce back from challenges.
In her new lab, the Epigenetics, Development & Neuroscience Lab, she and her team study how our bodies and brains can change. These changes happen throughout our lives because of our environment. A big part of their current work looks at how being exposed to chemicals called bisphenols before birth affects mothers and babies. This includes chemicals like Bisphenol A, or BPA. These chemicals are known to disrupt hormones in the body.
She is also part of the Boricua Youth Study. This is a long-term study that started at Columbia University. It aims to understand the good and bad things that affect young people in Puerto Rico.
Most recently, in 2018, she helped organize the Parental Brain Conference. This meeting brought together experts to discuss the biological and behavioral aspects of parental health.
Awards and Recognition
Dr. Frances Champagne has received several important awards for her groundbreaking research:
- 2012-2013 Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award in Psychology: This award was given to her by Columbia University.
- 2009 Frank A. Beach Young Investigator Award in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology: This award recognizes young scientists who are making important contributions to the study of hormones and behavior.
- 2007 NIH Director's New Innovator Awards: This is a very special award from the National Institutes of Health. It supports highly creative scientists who are doing innovative research. Her project focused on how epigenetic changes can pass down reproductive behaviors.
