Undergraduate Researcher Spotlight: Gerald Tabe

Gerald Tabe is a junior Neuroscience major working in two labs: the Auditory Perception and Modeling Lab led by Dr. Matthew Goupell and the Hearing Brain Lab led by Dr. Samira Anderson. His research explores how the brain processes and understands sound, with a particular interest in how factors such as time of day, individual differences, hearing ability, and listening conditions influence auditory perception and speech understanding. Through his work across both labs, Gerald is interested in connecting behavioral measures of auditory perception with the underlying physiology and neural processes that support hearing and communication.

This summer, Gerald worked with Dr. Goupell through OUR’s Student Proposed Innovation & Research Experience (SPIRE), which allowed us the chance to learn more about Gerald’s research and his path to getting involved in the Auditory Perception and Modeling Lab. Gerald shared that he is. . .

“. . .Focused on understanding those differences in the hearing patterns of young, normal-hearing listeners, old, normal-hearing, and old hearing-impaired individuals, but now I am taking it a step further to investigate how much effort each group is putting into listening to these sentences and degraded listening conditions, because we're trying to simulate everyday real-life conditions.”

Gerald got started in research on campus, as many of us do, by cold emailing different research heads. In his freshman year, he knew he wanted to do lab work, so he started looking for opportunities as soon as he set foot on campus. As difficult as cold emailing can be, Gerald shared advice that he found worked for him. He shared that tailoring your script to the PI you are writing to can make a huge difference. Knowing what they do and what projects they are working on, and mentioning an interest in that field, can help you stand out and show that you are interested in their subject matter.

Starting as a neuroscience major, Gerald found he had to be open to exploring different opportunities on campus.

“By keeping my options open and being open to other opportunities, ideas, and fields, I stumbled upon this, and it's a field that my passion has grown in the more I did it. And it’s very impactful when I see people come into the lab or the clinic and get their cochlear implant fitting done, getting to see how much of a difference it makes.”

There were so many neuroscience-related areas to study on campus, and Gerald shared that he sent several cold emails to professors and interviewed with a few labs. Gerald had the opportunity to interview for and was accepted to join a research lab funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). However, shortly after he was offered the position, he learned the funding for the position was lost.

“At NIH, I had an interview with a PI, but afterward, [the interviewer] reached out and he's like, ‘No, sorry, it's cut.’ . . . So then I came back in the spring semester and started the process all over again. I was just devastated.”

Despite this, Gerald kept connecting with research groups, including Dr. Matthew Goupell. Gerald joined Dr. Goupell’s Research Equity and Access in Communication and Hearing Lab (REACH), run by the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, where he developed his passion for hearing and speech science. In addition, he made connections with Dr. Samira Anderson in the Auditory Perception Modeling Lab, who works closely with the REACH Lab.

Building on his experience connecting with the REACH Lab, he sought out opportunities to expand on his research experience. This led him to propose an independent project on campus over the summer through the SPIRE program with the support and mentorship of both of his PIs. After finishing his summer research, he presented his research at the Summer Undergraduate Research Conference (SURC) in July!

Gerald's journey can show us the importance of perseverance and adaptability when seeking out research opportunities and cold emailing faculty members. By embracing curiosity, he not only found his passion in the hearing and speech sciences but is now making tangible contributions to the field. As he continues his work in the CMNS department this fall, Gerald shows how students can turn cold emails into meaningful research careers!