Dr. Jesse Jackson

Dr. Jackson is an assistant professor in the physiology department at the University of Alberta and the Canada Research Chair in Neural Circuits. His laboratory is focused on studying how different cell types in the brain connect and communicate. Current projects are focused on determining how and why different brain regions are active during sleep, and how this sleep-related activity facilitates memory consolidation.

Dr. Jackson grew up in rural Alberta, on a grain farm, near the village of Elnora. Despite some rather mediocre high school grades, and no high school biology, he enrolled at Red Deer college. After two years he transferred to the University of Calgary where he completed an Undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Psychology, and a Master of Science. He then moved to McGill University where he completed his PhD in Neuroscience. Following his PhD studies, he spent 2 years at Columbia University in New York City as a postdoctoral fellow, and another 3 years at Janelia Research Campus in Virginia. He opened his laboratory at the University of Alberta in 2018.