Faculty Profile: Gwyneth Hill Beagley
Gwyneth Hill Beagley gets her best research ideas from her students.
“I have gotten my best ideas from undergraduates because they are not afraid of making mistakes,” the professor of psychology says. “Because of the ability to interact with students in the lab, you learn more working here than you would at a larger research university.”
Her students have presented the results of their research at conferences such as The Society for Neuroscience, Midwestern Psychological Society and the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.
She met her husband, fellow psychology professor Walter Beagley, during the first week of their freshman year at Middlebury College. Originally from Rhode Island, Beagley graduated from Middlebury in 1969.
After earning her master's degree from Bryn Mawr in 1972, she joined the Alma College faculty in 1985, and finished her doctorate at Michigan State University in 1991.
Her research interests are in the area of neuroscience and include the changes in the brain due to environmental conditions such as drugs, hormones, stress and food. Some of her research has been published in Neuroscience Letters and Brain Research Bulletin.
“In addition to matching grants from the National Science Foundation, Alma College has done everything possible to help me support my laboratory, including acquisition of an electron microscope,” she says.
Beagley has three grown children. In her spare time she enjoys kayaking, traveling and walking. She and her husband also enjoy watching their students perform in creative endeavors such as plays and musical concerts.
