Complex disorders such as drug addiction and age-related memory degradation affect millions of people world-wide and are linked to interactions between multiple brain systems, most notably, hippocampal and dopaminergic reward-learning systems. Hippocampal neurons reliably code an animal’s position in an environment, can represent different behaviorally-relevant spatial frames of reference, and spike sequences resulting from travel in an environment are replayed during rest and sleep. A key component of the brain's reward learning system, the ventral striatum, is involved in selecting stimulus-response behaviors based upon contextual inputs and predicted reward outcomes. My research examines the network-level information processing that integrates the functions of the hippocampal and reward-learning systems in awake animals by combining behavioral, pharmacological or functional stimulation techniques, and simultaneous multi-site electrophysiological recordings of neuronal ensembles from both the hippocampus and structures such as the nucleus accumbens during behavior and sleep. My teaching interests outside the classroom involve research mentorship in neuronal electrophysiology, the biological basis of behavior, and theoretical and computational methods.