Zacharie SAINT-GEORGES
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Zacharie SAINT-GEORGES
Honours Bachelor of Science in Psychology, University of Ottawa (2019)
Bachelor of Social Science, with Minor in Psychology, University of Ottawa (2018)
Biography
Year of Entry: 2019
Graduate Program: Neuroscience
PhD Supervisor: Dr. Synthia Guimond & Dr. Lauri Tuominen
Personal Background:
My life experiences have inspired a passion for research and medicine, especially as it pertains to mental health. I’m a fulfilled husband and father, and I greatly enjoy spending time with my family. I aspire to become a clinician-researcher and mental health advocate to make a difference in our health care system and society at large.
Research Focus:
My Honours Thesis explored the temporal sequencing of depressive symptoms, peer victimization and self-esteem across adolescence using structural equation modelling, and I found evidence for a Self-Perception Driven Model, whereby low self-esteem would lead to increased depressive symptoms, which, in turn, would predict victimization by adolescent peers. These results highlighted the importance of helping youth form a healthy identity that promotes positive mental health and peer relations, and the need to intervene with depressed, victimized, and at-risk adolescents to instill positive self-regard.
More recently, I’ve been interested in the neurobiological causes of psychiatric illnesses as assessed by neuroimaging modalities. For my PhD, I will investigate the role of the cholinergic system in the cognitive impairments associated with schizophrenia using [18F]FEOBV PET and working memory related fMRI
Scholarship Support:
Admission Scholarship – Doctorate (2020)