Trainee Profile: Daniel Godfrey
Daniel (also known as Dan) Godfrey is a great example of reinventing oneself. He is a mature graduate student, currently undertaking a Masters in Psychology & Neuroscience. Dan came to Halifax from Beach Meadows - near Liverpool, NS - 20 years ago and attended art school.
Dan worked as a graphic designer for 12 years and realized that there was more to consumer behaviour. He was drawn to social psychology, so he went to school at MSVU, for an undergrad in cognitive psychology. Then he started volunteering for Aaron Newman in the neurocognitive imaging lab NCIL, and was encouraged to take up a masters program in experimental neuroscience.
I am able to combine my passion for neuroscience, technology, and helping people to achieve their goals. My research focuses on optimizing brain-computer interface (BCI) performance.
Dan says he thought this type of work only existed in science fiction. Now he’s doing it and soon he will have some undergrads to help him do it too.
He says he had a lot of support emotionally and financially which helped him go back to school, to re-tool, effectively start a new career. He’s very interested in both basic research and the applied work. He sees himself continuing with basic research, become a professor and hopefully have some irons in some private sector fires to really bridge the gap between Lab and commercialization.
Dan says the sky is the limit there is no shortage of potential for applications for the kind of technologies (Brain Computer Interfaces) that he is researching. There are many applications for BCI’s including gaming, but what Dan’s main interest is in helping people with with severe motor impairment/neurodegenerative diseases to have a better quality of life. He sees a lot of potential for improving the lifestyle of a good number of people including the caretakers.
Daniel is currently at the end of his masters program and will be transitioning into a PhD program. And he’s pretty busy outside of school as well. As if having a 10 month old at home isn’t enough to keep him busy he teaches salsa dancing enjoys martial arts and true to his roots does some creative/graphic design work.