Eszter Rebeka Kovács has always found the mysteries of the mind fascinating, and she is deeply motivated to investigate the neurobiological underpinnings of cognitive processes.
Eszter Rebeka Kovács comes into the NAD PhD programme with a keen interest in the neurobiology of cognition:
”I am really interested in understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of cognitive processes. I am particularly interested in learning and memory from a molecular point of view. Regarding topics, I am interested in neurodegenerative diseases as many of them come with cognitive decline. I am hoping to create a project where I can study the cognitive aspects of these conditions.”
Rebeka is also interested in sleep and neuroinflammation and how these affect cognitive processes, for example in neurodegenerative diseases and in addiction, connecting nicely to her other interests.
Rebeka will utilise the pre-PhD year to explore and refine these varied interests:
”As I have not pinpointed my main interest yet, I think NAD gives a really great opportunity to move from one lab to another. You can get to know three different labs and three different environments, maybe even three different topics, and experience these without having a commitment from the very beginning. One other thing I also really like about the NAD PhD programme is that it gives great opportunity for networking within the Danish neuroscience field. I would like to create an interdisciplinary project where different techniques can be combined and people with different expertise work together,” she explains.
For Rebeka, the best thing about working in science is new discoveries – and being the driving factor in generating new knowledge. She was not, however, always sure that she wanted to work in research:
“I was always interested in the complex processes of the human mind. After I finished high school, I moved to Denmark to pursue a degree in business, but I realised that […] it was not enough for me because I am so curious about the mind. I never really thought that I could do anything about it, and then I realised that it is only up to me what I am able to achieve,” Rebeka says.
This new insight led her to pursue a degree in psychology in the Netherlands instead. She quickly gravitated towards the more research-based courses, sparking her interest in neuroscience. She continued in the master’s programme in Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences at the University of Groningen before moving to Denmark to work as a research assistant at the Center for Translational Neuromedicine in 2024, studying neuromodulator dynamics in mice under different conditions. Staying in Denmark to pursue her PhD through the NAD PhD programme, she hopes to build lasting connections in the Danish neuroscience community.