The Team

Dr. Vento received his Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University at Buffalo in the lab of Dr. Derek Daniels, where he investigated neural regulation of body fluid homeostasis. Dr. Vento conducted his postdoctoral training under the mentorship of Dr. Thomas Jhou in the Department of Neuroscience at the Medical University of South Carolina, where he began his work in the neural circuitry of punishment learning and drug seeking. He is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, Cognitive and Neural Sciences Program, at the University of South Carolina.  

Murphy Miller recently graduated from the University of South Carolina as a Pre-med student in the UofSC Honors College, with a major in Psychology and minor in Neuroscience. He completed his UofSC Honors Thesis on Effective Psychosocial Interventions for Children and Adolescents, as well as an undergraduate independent student in The Vento Lab studying neural circuits of aversive learning. Murphy is now a full-time technician working with Dr. Vento as he hopes to one day pursue a career in medicine. 

Jacob Watson received his Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology (minor in Biology)  from California State University, Bakersfield. While at CSUB, he worked under Dr. Amy Gancarz-Kausch in her Psychopharmacology Lab studying addiction. He was awarded the MARC U*STAR Biomedical Research Fellowship funded by NIH, Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholarship, CSUB Student Research Scholarship, and the Outstanding Student award for the Department of Psychology and the School of Social Sciences and Education. He is now a graduate student researcher working toward his Ph.D. in Psychology in the Vento Lab.

Grace Joyner is currently working towards a BS in the Honors College at the University of South Carolina, with a major in Biology and minor in Neuroscience. Grace was recently awarded a Science Undergraduate Research Fellowship through the UofSC Honors College for the 2022-23 academic year, to work on projects in the Vento Lab exploring the role of D2-expressing neurons in aversive learning. 

Maddy is a Pre-med student with a major in Biology and minor in Neuroscience, and a member of the UofSC Honors College. Maddy is currently conducting an independent study on the role of aversive learning circuits on conditioned flavor preference. To support her research in the 2022-23 academic year, Maddy was awarded funding through the College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Enhancement Program.  

Charlotte Grover is a senior at the University of South Carolina with  graduate in December 2022. Charlotte is a Capstone Scholar majoring in Experimental Psychology with minors in Counselor Education and Spanish. She is currently volunteering in the lab with hopes to soon start conducting her own independent study conducting an independent study in the Vento Lab to study the role of aversive learning circuits on flavor preference.