Katie Murphy

Katie is a first year Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. student under the guidance of Dr. Boltin. In May 2025, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of South Carolina with a B.S. in Neuroscience and a concentration in Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience. As an undergraduate, Katie worked on the cognitive deception project in the ASC and discovered a passion for research, which caused her to pursue graduate school rather than medical school. Her love of neuroscience and experience as a first responder contribute greatly to her work on the Cognitive Deception project, where she examines the neurophysiological biomarkers of stress in the human brain. Her experiments, of which include the infamous Mario Kart experiment, allow her to visualize the effects of chronic stress in the brain in real time. When she’s not in the lab, she’s likely to be cheering on the Gamecocks with her Texas Heeler puppy, Dingo!