Georgetown College. Georgetown University.

Michael Billington

Michael Billington, a premed student and a psych/theology double major from Harrisonburg, Virginia, currently works as an assistant in Dr. Chandan Vaidya’s lab.

Billington has been working and analyzing images from the fMRI during research. “It’s exciting to actually see and observe the children having their brain scanned, and of course knowing that you are actually looking at someone’s brain from all different dimensions … it’s pretty powerful.” 

Billington has earned a GUROP for this coming summer, and he will be examining, with Dr. Vaidya’s guidance, the behavioral differences of two subtypes of ADHD to determine how these different groups will be able to learn new information when probability is involved.

Passionate about the field, he is excited that “ADHD involves so much of what is called ‘executive functioning,’ which is really what makes humans as smart and conscious and adaptable as we are.  The interesting symptoms that ADHD children exhibit ultimately probe at some of the most important and complex questions about how we are able to do and think all the things that we do and think.”

Billington is applying for medical school this summer, and hopes to enroll in the fall of 2008 or 2009, concentrating on the fields of neurology, psychiatry, and neurosurgery.  “I’d very much like to continue my focus and research on the brain in medical school.”

One of his biggest dreams is to ultimately do charity work as a physician in the Middle East and he will be taking intensive Arabic next year to learn the language.   Billington also hopes to provide others with opportunities to learn and grow in both knowledge and character, like those afforded to him by Dr. Vaidya.

“Professor Vaidya has definitely taught me to think more like a scientist and has transformed my classroom understanding of scientific research into a more useful and practical one.”

Outside of academics, Billington loves running and is a member of the Georgetown track team.  He also enjoys reading, biking, photography, and flying kites.

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