Emily Siff's Joyful Thesis Defense
Life, Death, & Cannibalism
Monday May 11th at 3:30pm
In-Person: Yale Medical Campus — TAC Auditorium (N107)
& On Zoom! Click Here for Zoom Link
IT'S THE BEGINNING —
OF THE END!

Death and cannibalism in the fly, like you've never seen it before!
Death! Brains! Resurrection!

See details below, including accessibility information
When & Where is the Defense?
When: Defense is Monday May 11th at 3:30pm,
with food and drinks served at 4:30pm
Where: The Anlyan Center — TAC Auditorium (N107),
on Yale Medical Campus, as well as on zoom: https://yale.zoom.us/j/94194110549
Is there Food?!
Yes! A reception with food and drinks will immediately follow the defense, around 4:30pm
in the TAC lobby, right outside the auditorium
or, if weather permits, in the building's courtyard
(TAC courtyard)
The Defense
Death and cannibalism like never before!
This defense will cover 3 thrilling topics
1
The Odor of Death
2
Cannibalism & the Brain
3
Resurrection

Building Access
The building requires swipe access that all Yale affiliates have
If you are not a Yale affiliate, no stress!
Until 3:40pm, there will be a friend at the door to let you in and, after that, there is security behind the front desk
Auditorium Access
The auditorium is right when you walk in, on the right. You can enter:
i) from the front of the auditorium, immediately when you walk into the building, on the right
ii) from the back of the auditorium, by going up the stairs or the elevator, both located in the lobby
Accessibility
Mobility: Auditorium (and building) are wheelchair accessible and ADA compliant
Vision: Emily will enthusiastically narrate the defense and slides will be available in advance
Hearing: We are planning to have hard of hearing (HOH) technology setup (FM)
*Please contact Emily for details!
Emily Siff
A joyful death neuroscientist!




Why Study Death? Where there is life, there is death. Neuroscience and biology have long studied life. It is time we studied its inevitable counterpart, death✨
The Dream — Emily's dream is to help spearhead the creation of Death Neuroscience, a discipline in which we enthusiastically examine the mechanisms underlying post-mortem pathways and cues, and how those signals are detected and processed by the living.
How it Started — Emily has master's degrees in Computational Cognitive Science (CCS) and Biomedical Engineering (BME), with a focus on statistical methodology development. During the pandemic, she was the statistician for Covid mortality studies. She began to wonder: what does exposure to the dead do to the living? While death had been studied as a psychological stimulus (e.g., grief, trauma), death as a physical stimulus (e.g., smell) had been less well-examined. Her PhD work has focused on death as a physical stimulus — how the smell and taste of dead kin affects living flies (Drosophila).