Current Students | Computational Approaches to the Neuroscience of Audition and Communication (CANAC) | Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Elebin Ortiz

Elelbin is a neuroscience graduate student in Michael Granato's lab. She attended the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where she received her bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Elelbin's thesis work involves understanding the circuit and molecular mechanisms that underlie the establishment of the acoustic startle response, an evolutionary conserved behavior elicited by a perceived acoustic threat. She combines both computational and experimental approaches to study the role of synaptotagmin 7, a synaptic protein involved with vesicle release and replenishment, in establishing acoustic startle thresholds.

Ammon Perkes

Ammon is a 5th year PhD candidate in the Biology department. He received his B.S. in Biology from Brigham Young University. Ammon works in the Schmidt Lab, where he studies the neural and social drivers of songbird mating behavior and is especially interested in finding ways to quantify complex social behavior.

Aaron Williams

Originally from Virginia, Aaron attended undergrad at Stanford University, where he majored in human biology. At the University of Pennsylvania, Aaron is a member of the MD-PhD program, where he is a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Maria Geffen. As a member of the CANAC training program, he studies subcortical audiovisual integration at the level of individual and groups of neurons using both electrophysiological and optical techniques. Aaron aspires to be a physician scientist specializing in neurology, and he hopes to use experimental and computational techniques to understand the neural basis of a variety of sensory, cognitive, and behavioral disorders.

Jared Zimmerman

Jared graduated from Trinity College in 2013 with a degree in neuroscience and minor in philosophy. After graduating, Jared worked at the Massachusetts General Hospital Division of Neurotherapeutics, where I used non-invasive brain imaging (fMRI) to develop biomarkers and predictors of treatment response to non-invasive brain stimulation (TMS) therapies for depression and OCD. At Penn, Jared works in the lab of Dr. Roy Hamilton and his research focuses on utilizing novel neuroimaging methods for mapping functional anatomy in individual subjects in order to optimize brain stimulation interventions with a focus on modulating cognitive control and semantic memory in language.