Dr. Michele Noonan Ross is the most recognizable real female scientist on TV. In 2009 Dr. Michele starred on the hit CBS reality TV show Big Brother 11 as part of the "Brains" team, where she was a role model for scientists and smart women. She lasted 66 days in the Big Brother House. She continues to make appearances as a scientist and brain expert on TV and radio shows including Spike TV's 1000 Ways to Die, AfterBuzz TV, Playboy Radio, and Good Morning 90210. Dr. Michele Ross was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. The first in her family to go to college, she received her B.A. in Psychology from Boston College in 2004. She had won a prestigious undergraduate research fellowship to study cocaine addiction in rats. She also was a National Institute of Health (NIH) undergraduate summer research fellow at the University of Massachusetts Medical School where she used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the impact of cocaine on the brains of awake rats. Dr. Michele earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 2008 from a top-ranking Psychiatry department at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, with her doctoral thesis on "the role of adult neurogenesis in cocaine addiction." She was supported by a highly competitive predoctoral fellowship she applied for and was awarded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA). Dr. Michele then pursued postdoctoral studies in the department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology, where she studied the role of o-GlcNac glycosylation of proteins on learning and memory. She was supported by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).Dr. Michele is working on her second weight loss book and is currently a writer for several high-profile magazines. She also develops health and beauty products for 16 Bottles where she is Chief Scientist. More information about Dr. Michele can be found at her website, www.drmicheleross.com.Dr. Michele currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband Todd.