​Maria is currently in her fourth year, pursuing an Honours degree in Cognitive Science, in the Neuroscience stream. Her honours project is focused on developing a method to quantify gender as a variable, enabling its use in future research. This initiative stems from the recognition that lifestyle and socio-cultural factors significantly influence health, yet gender has frequently been either neglected or mistakenly conflated with biological sex in scientific research. The aim of her project is to explore the relationship between gender as a socio-cultural construct, and the brain. In her free time, she enjoys working out, baking and cooking.