Hometown: Iowa City, Iowa
Faculty mentor: Mark Blumberg, PhD, professor, University of Iowa Distinguished Chair; and Greta Sokoloff, PhD, Research Scientist, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Degree program and anticipated graduation date: Bachelor’s in Spanish and neuroscience with certificate in disability studies, resilience and trauma-informed perspectives, and clinical and translational science with  a minor in psychology

Lydia Karr works in the Blumberg Lab, where the team studies sleep and behavioral development. The human infant side of the lab looks at sleep in full-term and preterm infants recruited from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at UI Health Care Medical Center. The researchers study the role of sleep in brain development, looking at brain activity and infant behavior to understand the impact of premature birth on sleep and brain development. Karr contributes to every aspect of the project, scoring infant behavior, analyzing data, and running EEG sessions. She is also working on an independent project to assess different methods of scoring infant sleep behavior.

Karr plans to apply for medical scientist training programs to obtain MD and PhD degrees. She hopes to become a pediatrician or neonatologist, practicing medicine while continuing to do research.

Banner location: Downtown—