People
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Read More about Bijan PesaranBijan Pesaran
Principal Investigator
Bijan Pesaran
Principal Investigator
Bijan Pesaran is interested in understanding large-scale circuits in the brain and how to engineer novel brain-based therapies. Bijan completed his undergraduate degree in Physics at the University of Cambridge, UK. After a year in the Theoretical Physics department at Bell Labs Murray Hill, he went on to earn his PhD in Physics at the California Institute of Technology. He then made the switch to neuroscience as a postdoctoral fellow in Biology at Caltech. Bijan was on the faculty of the Center for Neural Science at New York University from 2006 until 2022. In 2013, he was a CV Starr Visiting Scholar at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute at Princeton University. Among other honors and awards, Bijan has received a Burroughs-Wellcome Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences, a Sloan Research Fellowship, a McKnight Scholar Award, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and is a member of the Simons Collaboration for the Global Brain. Bijan is currently the Robert A Groff Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Read More about Marsela Rubiano, RLATMarsela Rubiano, RLAT
Lab Manager / Technician
Marsela Rubiano, RLAT
Lab Manager / Technician
Marsela recieved her B.S. in Biology from Mercy College in 2014. For over 10yrs as a veterinary technician she discovered the demand of animal care in research as the biomedical field was growing rapidly. She started her laboratory animal research career when she joined this lab in 2015. She even relocated with the lab from NYU to UPenn in 2022. In the Pesaran Lab, she manages onboarding of new team members, is the ULAR certified trainer for animal training, prepares all protocol documents, runs the surgical pipeline, handles all administrative work for the lab and is the liaison between the vet staff and lab team members. Outside of her work you can find her living her suburban life with her dog (Na'vi) hiking or loving her snuggles from her cat (Neo). Shes an active member of Orange Theory workouts and loves to travel when she can!
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Read More about Agrita DubeyAgrita Dubey
Senior Research Investigator
Agrita Dubey
Senior Research Investigator
Agrita is interested in studying how different brain areas interact with each other during a behavioral task. In the Pesaran Lab, she will specifically focus on the visual attention in presence of an auditory stimulus. This work will involve recording brain signals from the prefrontal cortex of behaving monkeys using electroencephalography (EEG) and sub-dural Electrocorticography (ECoG) measures. Prior to joining the lab, she received her Ph.D. in systems neuroscience at Indian Institute of Science in 2018, with Dr. Supratim Ray.
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Read More about Qiao (Betty) XuQiao (Betty) Xu
Technician
Qiao (Betty) Xu
Technician
Betty received her MS in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 2024. She is passionate about neuro-rehabilitation technologies and aims to bridge AI, engineering, and brain science to advance this field. Currently, in the Pesaran Lab, her research focuses on spike sorting pipeline and visual prosthetics. Outside the lab, she enjoys doing outdoor activities and dancing.
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Read More about Alex EstradaAlex Estrada
Graduate Student
Alex Estrada
Graduate Student
Alex received his bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering and a Computer Science minor from UC Davis in 2022. Prior to his Ph.D. at UPenn, he worked in Dr. Sheela Toprani's epilepsy lab, investigating the effects of electrical neuromodulation on cognition and seizure reduction. Under the guidance of Dr. Bijan Pesaran, Alex is currently focused on decoding motor intent from neural recordings to drive the next generation of neuroprosthetic technologies. Leveraging machine learning, he compares neural signals obtained from subdural cortical (uECoG) and intracortical (Neuropixel) electrodes to assess how their properties affect motor decoding in macaque monkeys for brain-computer interface control. Outside the lab, he enjoys hiking and is a member of the UPenn swim and rock climbing clubs.
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Read More about Sergey ShuvaevSergey Shuvaev
Postdoc
Sergey Shuvaev
Postdoc
Sergey is a joint postdoc with the Dyer lab. He is broadly interested in biologically informed models of decision-making, where he combines computational neuroscience and artificial intelligence. In the Pesaran Lab, Sergey’s research is focused on curating data and building neuro-AI foundation models toward better clinical outcomes in behavioral disorders. Prior to joining the lab, Sergey’s research was focused on machine-learning models of behavior, which he designed in residence at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Sergey holds the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and Physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, where he worked on computer-vision pipelines for neuroimaging, followed by complementing his computational background with experience in electrical engineering.
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Read More about Henry PlamondonHenry Plamondon
Master Student
Henry Plamondon
Master Student
Henry is a master’s student in Bioengineering, having earned his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and Neurobiology with minors in Entrepreneurship and Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2023. His research focuses on using machine learning models to quantify the hand movement behavioral repertoire of rhesus macaques and correlate this repertoire with neural recordings from ECoG and microelectrode recordings. Through his thesis work, he aims to better characterize the neural architecture of the motor cortex and deepen our understanding of high-level cognitive function in the context of psychiatric disorders and neuropathologies. Outside the lab, he enjoys reading, staying active, and working on personal projects.
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Read More about David BakalovDavid Bakalov
Master Student
David Bakalov
Master Student
David earned his bachelor's degree in Bioengineering from UCLA in 2022 and is currently pursuing his master's degree in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. His thesis research utilizes multi-scale neural recordings obtained overnight from the primate motor cortex to investigate the mechanisms underlying sleep-dependent motor skill learning. Through this work, David aims to enhance our understanding of how the motor cortex contributes to learning and memory consolidation during sleep. Outside the lab, David enjoys playing basketball and watching movies.
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Read More about Indie GarwoodIndie Garwood
Postdoc Fellow
Indie Garwood
Postdoc Fellow
Indie Garwood is a postdoctoral fellow in the Pesaran lab studying the mechanisms of multiregional communication in the context of skilled motor tasks and cortical electrical stimulation. Her research focuses on the intersection of neurotechnology, data science, and translational neuroscience. She completed her PhD in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program and her BSE in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. When she is not in lab, you can find her running on the Schuylkill, hunting down new restaurants, or escaping to the mountains.
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Read More about Jake StefanowiczJake Stefanowicz
Graduate Student
Jake Stefanowicz
Graduate Student
Jake is a masters student in Biomedical Engineering, having earned his BAS in Bioengineering also at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in 2024. In the engineering domain, his involvements include implant/experimental device CAD modelling and algorithmic solutions leveraging computer vision approaches for high-throughput cortical multiphoton microscopy. His theoretical work investigates network dynamics involved in context-dependent decision making through the lens of neural state-space and manifold analyses.
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Read More about Juan Lopez LunaJuan Lopez Luna
Graduate Student
Juan Lopez Luna
Graduate Student
Juan is a Bioengineering Ph.D. student co-advised by Dr. Flavia Vitale, Associate Professor of Neurology, Bioengineering, and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Universidad La Salle and his M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering at the CINVESTAV, both in Mexico City. His research project focuses on developing a wearable device using novel MXene-based electrodes to acquire neuromotor signals at the skin's surface in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders to infer symptomatic states. The project aims to use continuous behavioral and brain recordings from patients with Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) probes to drive closed-loop neurostimulation for therapeutic interventions. Before Penn, he spent three years at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute designing and building high-throughput experimental setups to study decision-making, working with Dr. Ilana Witten, Dr. Carlos Brody, and Dr. David Tank.
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Read More about Simin HuangSimin Huang
Master Student
Simin Huang
Master Student
Simin is a master’s student in Bioengineering at Penn. She earned her BS degree from UC Davis in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior. Her research primarily focuses on cognitive neural circuits through behavioral studies. She is also interested in BCI and translational applications to help patients. Outside the lab, she enjoys hiking, painting, and watching movies.
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Read More about Jimin HuangJimin Huang
Master Student
Jimin Huang
Master Student
Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering: Bioengineering, Penn
Candidate for Master’s of Science in Engineering: Nanotechnology, Penn
Jimin is a master’s student in Nanotechnology, having earned his BSE in Bioengineering from Penn in 2024. His research and interests focus on leveraging micro and nanofabrication techniques to develop minimally invasive neuromodulation systems. His current projects include development of multimodal thin film electrodes using novel 2D nanomaterials, as well as development of a closed loop “living electrode” deep brain stimulation system for Parkinson’s disease. Outside the lab, he also enjoys the gym, cooking, and is an assistant coach for the Penn Men’s Varsity Golf team. -
Read More about Gautham NairGautham Nair
Technician
Gautham Nair
Technician
Gautham graduated with a B.S. in Bioengineering and a minor in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 2024. In the Pesaran Lab he works as a Research Specialist and his current research involves data analysis of LFP recordings to characterize activity in response to reach and saccade tasks occurring across various task conditions. This work aims to shed light on how the brain may potentially coordinate across spatial and visual representations depending on the task and deepen understanding of sensorimotor integration. Gautham also assists with the experimental/behavioral pipeline and animal care duties. Beyond his work, he enjoys any physical activity, cooking, and watching movies.
Alumni
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Read More about Ryan ShewcraftRyan Shewcraft
Graduate Student
Ryan Shewcraft
Graduate Student
Ryan received a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics-Physics and Philosophy from Brown University in 2007 and did a brief stint in finance before starting at NYU. Ryan is using optogenetic techniques to probe connectivity across long-range neural circuits in the sensorimotor systems. Outside of the lab, Ryan enjoys being active and is a member of the NYU Club Squash team.
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Read More about Mohammad KhazaliMohammad Khazali
Postdoctoral Fellow
Mohammad Khazali
Postdoctoral Fellow
Numerous cortical and sub-cortical brain areas are activated during visually guided coordination of eye and hand movements. How do these areas manage to send and read the needed information to orchestrate the movement is still an open question. Mohammad is applying simultaneous recordings from different areas of the posterior parietal cortex in combination with mathematical tools and optogenetic manipulations to pinpoint the neural communication patterns that govern this coordination. Prior to joining the lab, he worked with Peter Thier in Tuebingen University – Germany, where he studied the visual cortex contribution to the perception of verticality.
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Read More about James SunJames Sun
Postdoctoral Fellow
James Sun
Postdoctoral Fellow
James is a MD/PhD student at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in the neuroscience graduate program. He is interested in how electrical stimulation can be used to treat brain disease, especially epilepsy and memory disorders. He is co-mentored by Dr. Pesaran and by Dr. Dan Friedman, MD at NYU. Prior to joining Bijan’s lab, he studied a cell surface protein in glioblastoma under the guidance of Dr. Dimitris Placantonakis, MD, PhD at NYU. During his postbaccalaureate at Penn, he worked on 3D genome folding in trinucleotide repeat expansion diseases such as Fragile X syndrome under the mentorship of Dr. Jennifer Phillips-Cremins, PhD. James is originally from Philadelphia, PA, and enjoys golf and spending time with his Corgi puppy, Maddy.
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Read More about Elliot BareketElliot Bareket
Lab Technician
Elliot Bareket
Lab Technician
Elliot received his bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from the Univerisity of Michigan in 2022. He joined the Pesaran Lab the summer after he graduated. Elliot is interested in investigating clinical applications for motor cortex-related brain-machine interfaces, and further working on developing innovative approaches to seeing motor output in the nervous system.
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Read More about Miles CarterMiles Carter
Undergraduate Student
Miles Carter
Undergraduate Student
I am a Junior in the Center for Neural Science NYU, I started working for Dr. Pesaran the fall of my sophomore year. I have an interest in neurotechnology and hope to dive into more research involving BMI’s. Last year I assisted in spike sorting, neural imaging, and the Deep Lab Cut pipeline. In addition, I would assist in preparing and prepping parts the other lab technicians would require for experiments.
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Read More about Arpan BanerjeeArpan Banerjee
Postdoctoral Fellow
Arpan Banerjee
Postdoctoral Fellow
Arpan’s primary interests are theoretical and computational neuroscience, and functional brain imaging. Understanding where (spatial) and when (temporal) task-related differences in information processing occur in the brain is fundamentally important for formulating basic scientific theories and investigating the mechanisms of brain dysfunctions. The key research question that he wants to address is how large networks of neurons coordinate amongst each other to form organized assemblies at only specific instants of time to orchestrate ongoing behavior. Arpan was a member of the lab from 2008-2010. Arpan is currently an Associate Professor at the National Brain Research Center in India.
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Read More about Gaddi BlumrosenGaddi Blumrosen
Visiting Scientist
Gaddi Blumrosen
Visiting Scientist
Dr. Gaddi Blumrosen is Eshkol fellow at computer science department at Tel Aviv University. His main interest are in biomedical signal processing, in human motion acquisition, and its representation in the brain. Currently he is working on detection of non-human primates facial expression, how to decode them, explore how they differ between con-specifics, and their relationship with emotions and social content.
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Read More about Nia BolesNia Boles
Junior Research Scientist
Nia Boles
Junior Research Scientist
Nia is a recent graduate of Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Science degree in both Neuroscience and Psychology. After graduation she returned to her hometown New York City to pursue a career in neurological research. Nia is interested in using her time at NYU to further her understanding of the neurological sciences and gain experience in translational research. Nia plans on attending medical school and eventually entering the neurosurgery field. Her passion for the brain and nervous system stems from her love of science and it’s relation to human anatomy, physiology, and psychology. In her spare time Nia enjoys cooking, writing, and running outdoors.
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Read More about Kevin BrownKevin Brown
Graduate Student
Kevin Brown
Graduate Student
Kevin is interested in how ensembles of neurons encode behavior across multiple time and spatial scales. In the central nervous system, time and space appear to be coupled across micro-, meso-, and macroscopic scales, for instance in the form of local circuits, propagating waves of activity, and large networks. He would like to understand how neurons interact within and across these scales. Previously, he worked in the laboratories of Callum Ross and Nicholas Hatsopoulos at the University of Chicago studying primate jaw and tongue coordination in the orofacial region of primary motor cortex, and local field potential wave propagation in the arm/hand region of primary motor cortex during a reach-to-grasp task. Kevin is now working on developing deep learning tools for discovery at Bristol-Meyers-Squibb.
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Read More about Kyle BrubakerKyle Brubaker
Graduate Student
Kyle Brubaker
Graduate Student
Kyle completed his M.Sc. in Bioengineering in the lab developing algorithms to detect the transitions between movement and rest during unconstrained reach-and-grasp task. He is now working as a Data Scientist in New York City.
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Read More about John ChoiJohn Choi
Postdoctoral Fellow
John Choi
Postdoctoral Fellow
John is interested in large scale brain phenomena, for application to brain computer interfaces and neural prosthetics. In particular, he wants to answer questions about how visual and auditory stimuli are integrated and processed during decision-making. In the lab, John is developing tools for long-term high-resolution imaging, optogenetic stimulation and electrical recording. After completing an undergraduate degree in Bioengineering at Duke University, John received his PhD from SUNY Downstate Medical Center designing encoding algorithms for somatosensory neural prosthetics. John is now working on exciting projects at Facebook Reality Labs in New York City.
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Read More about Greg CoganGreg Cogan
Postdoctoral Fellow
Greg Cogan
Postdoctoral Fellow
In the Pesaran Lab, Greg studied speech perception and production, characterizing the dorsal stream for auditory speech processing. His specific focus is on how the brain transforms between representations that are specific to perception (sensory) and representations that are specific to production (motor). He is also interested in how this transformation relates to other speech computations such as lexical access and verbal working memory. Prior to joining the lab, Greg completed a PhD in Neural and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Maryland with David Poeppel. Greg is now working with Jon Viventi at Duke University to continue his work studying speech processing in humans with advanced brain interfaces.
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Read More about Heather DeanHeather Dean
Postdoctoral Fellow
Heather Dean
Postdoctoral Fellow
Heather studied eye-hand coordination in the lab. She is currently a AAAS Science Policy Fellow.
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Read More about Keith DoellingKeith Doelling
Graduate Student
Keith Doelling
Graduate Student
Keith completed his PhD studying with Dr. Pesaran in the Center for Neural Science as well as Dr. David Poeppel in the Psychology Department. In his undergraduate education, studying Cognitive Neuroscience and Music at Harvard University, he conducted research on the role of rhythm perception and production in dyslexia and linguistic ability. After graduating, he worked in Dr. Poeppel’s lab, studying interactions between neural oscillations in the brain and rhythms in speech and music and demonstrating the necessity of such interactions for speech comprehension. As a PhD candidate, he worked on interactions between sensory and motor systems during speech perception as well as modeling neural dynamics. Keith was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and is currently transitioning into postdoctoral research.
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Read More about Margaret FabiszakMargaret Fabiszak
Undergraduate Student, Junior Research Scientist
Margaret Fabiszak
Undergraduate Student, Junior Research Scientist
While in the Pesaran Lab, Margaret completed her undergraduate thesis contributing to a study of value representations by conducting simultaneous electrophysiological recordings in two areas of the posterior parietal cortex. After graduating, she continued as a junior research scientist implementing techniques such as multielectrode, semichronic array recordings in an effort to dissociate decision making circuits underlying eye-hand coordination, optogenetic stimulation to explore network dynamics in a fronto-parietal circuit, and laminar probe recordings to examine layer specific interactions underlying saccades. Margaret’s undergraduate thesis was awarded the Borgman Thesis Prize, 2010, for Best Undergraduate Thesis in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at New York University.
Margaret is currently an MD-PhD candidate at the Tri-Institutional Weill Cornell | Rockefeller | Sloan-Kettering MD-PhD program. She is working on her graduate thesis in the lab of Winrich Freiwald at The Rockefeller University. Within this work, she is looking at the manner in which the face patch network, populations of neurons within the temporal cortex that specifically respond to faces, processes dynamic, socially relevant stimuli. Following this, it is her aim to gain an understanding of how this face patch network interacts with a network of areas along the superior temporal sulcus known to respond specifically during social interactions. Using fMRI, electrophysiology, and molecular techniques, she hopes to dissect the network interactions by which faces become socially relevant stimuli. Upon finishing her thesis, she will return to finish her clinical training at which point she hopes to establish a research based approach to exploring the biological basis underlying complex, clinical neurological and psychiatric disorders.
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Read More about Laura FedericiLaura Federici
Visiting Scientist
Laura Federici
Visiting Scientist
Laura is a student at the Pharmacy at Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna. She is really interested in neuroscience and she is in the Pesaran’s Lab to do her Master’s thesis. Her thesis studies the coordination of arm and eye movements, with a focus on posterior parietal cortex and frontal cortex and on discovering how the cortical pathways interact to support coordination.
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Read More about Breonna FerrentinoBreonna Ferrentino
Junior Research Scientist
Breonna Ferrentino
Junior Research Scientist
Breonna is a graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University, where she received her BA in Neuroscience. In the lab, Breonna investigated how electrical stimulation can alter neural activity of large-scale brain circuits during a decision-making task. This allowed her to explore and develop her own specific question regarding the neuroscience of decision making, a cognitive process that is prominent for the study of many neurological illnesses such as depression, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, ADHD. After completing her work in the lab, Breonna pursued a PhD at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.
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Read More about Maureen HaganMaureen Hagan
Postdoctoral Fellow, Graduate Student
Maureen Hagan
Postdoctoral Fellow, Graduate Student
Maureen’s research focuses on how coordinated eye-hand movements influence the neural activity in the posterior parietal cortex. She is interested in how populations of neurons in different brain regions interact to accomplish the computations necessary for complex behaviors. By recording information simultaneously from area LIP and PRR, she has studied how different parts of the brain communicate with one another to better our understanding of how neural circuits are constructed across brain regions. Maureen is currently completing a postdoc with Marcello Rosa at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
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Read More about David HawellekDavid Hawellek
Postdoctoral Fellow
David Hawellek
Postdoctoral Fellow
David is interested in how brain circuits are able to integrate information that is spatially distributed across many different brain areas and how this integration goes wrong in brain diseases. To study mechanisms of functional neuronal integration David uses large-scale measurements of brain activity to assess distributed patterns of brain activity. In the Pesaran Lab, he studies value-based decision making as a prototypical model of an integrative process: How does the brain derive a categorical choice from uncertain information?
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Read More about Asha IyerAsha Iyer
Postdoctoral Fellow
Asha Iyer
Postdoctoral Fellow
Asha received her MD-PhD from the UCLA-Caltech program and completed her PhD research with Richard Andersen. She is interested in functional neurosurgery. In the Pesaran Lab, Asha studyied sensory-motor processing for speech using electrocorticography, electrodes that record directly from the surface of the brain, in epilepsy patients. She is currently Resident in Neurosurgery at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
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Read More about Yoohee JangYoohee Jang
Lab Technician
Yoohee Jang
Lab Technician
Yoohee joined the lab from SUNY Stony Brook and has been setting up the labs neurosurgical pipeline. Whether it’s artificial cerebro-spinal-fluid or a special tool to reach the darkest recesses of the brain, Yoohee will make sure we have it, stat! In Fall 2015, Yoohee will be moving to greener pastures and will enroll at the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine.
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Read More about Jessica KleinbartJessica Kleinbart
Junior Research Scientist
Jessica Kleinbart
Junior Research Scientist
Jessica obtained her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University and her M.Eng in Biomedical Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology. Her primary research interests lie in the development and applications of brain-machine interfaces, especially as they relate to neuroprosthetics. Jessica spent her time in the Pesaran Lab honing her mechanical design skills as well as furthering her understanding of translational neuroscience. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Pittsburgh. Outside of the lab, Jessica can usually be found snowboarding, playing a stringed musical instrument, or snowboarding while playing a stringed musical instrument.
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Read More about David MarkowitzDavid Markowitz
Postdoctoral Fellow
David Markowitz
Postdoctoral Fellow
David uses experimental and computational tools to investigate the dynamics of working memory, attention and decision-making in the brain. His long-term goals are to better understand the neurobiology of mental illness and to support the development of neurally-inspired machine learning algorithms. David enjoys sailing, golf, whisky, and dreaming of a day when robots learn to change diapers. He currently works on the team administering the IARPA component of the BRAIN Initiative, MiCRoNs.
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Read More about Octavia MartinOctavia Martin
Undergraduate Student
Octavia Martin
Undergraduate Student
Octavia is a junior in the Center for Neural Science undergraduate program at NYU. During her freshman and sophomore year she worked with Shaoyu Qiao to understand how to manipulate neural activity involved in making decisions by stimulating large-scale brain circuits.
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Read More about Sharon NgSharon Ng
Lab Technician
Sharon Ng
Lab Technician
Sharon is interested in learning how evolution can help us better understand the underlying neural mechanisms of humans’ and animals’ decision making processes. This can help us predict and understand its relation to behavior. She is currently training to teach high-school biology.
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Read More about Amy OrsbornAmy Orsborn
Postdoctoral Fellow
Amy Orsborn
Postdoctoral Fellow
Amy is interested in brain-machine interfaces, both for developing neuroprostheses and as a tool to study motor learning and control. Her work in the Pesaran Lab explored measuring and manipulating neural circuits at varying spatial scales (e.g. ECoG, LFP, spikes) using multiple modalities (optical and electrical) and was supported by a L’Oreal USA for Women in Science Fellowship. She is currently the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Bioengineering at the University of Washington, Seattle and core staff scientist at the Washington National Primate Research Center.
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Read More about Sabrina OsmanySabrina Osmany
Graduate Student
Sabrina Osmany
Graduate Student
Sabrina earned her Masters in ITP at NYU.She is interested in the intersection of science, technology and design. Her work in the lab examines how perception meets reality. Sabrina has developed the technology to perform anatomically-correct motion capture and virtual reality with human subjects. In the Fall 2015, Sabrina is enrolling in the PhD program at Harvard University’s School of Design.
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Read More about David PutrinoDavid Putrino
Postdoctoral Fellow
David Putrino
Postdoctoral Fellow
David was a member of the lab from 2011-2013. David is currently Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.
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Read More about Shaoyu QiaoShaoyu Qiao
Postdoctoral Fellow
Shaoyu Qiao
Postdoctoral Fellow
Shaoyu is interested in neural interfaces and neuroprosthetics, both in the central and peripheral nervous systems. In the Pesaran lab, he focuses specifically on developing a closed-loop microstimulation system to target the cortical and subcortical decision-action networks in non-human primates performing a probabilistic reinforcement learning task to help develop new treatments for neuropsychiatric conditions. The work involves measuring physiological-functional map of the mesolimbic circuit and correcting maladaptive plasticity in the circuit through microstimulation based upon the decision variables predicted by an actor-critic computational model. Prior to joining the lab, he received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University in 2014, with Dr. Ken Yoshida. Shaoyu is now Neural Engineering Lead at Paradromics in Austin TX.
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Read More about Sameer Sabharwal-SiddiqiSameer Sabharwal-Siddiqi
Junior Research Scientist
Sameer Sabharwal-Siddiqi
Junior Research Scientist
Sameer is interested in developing cognitive models of attention and decision making. His work in the Lab specifically investigates the interplay between top-down and bottom-up attention in the context of multimodal target acquisition. He has worked with Jarl Haggerty and John Choi to implement a virtual reality interface for the immersive display of audiovisual cues as well as the tracking of eye-movement. Sameer is also an avid history-buff. He is particularly interested in how recent discoveries in Neuroscience, especially in the fields of embodied and social cognition, might bear on questions that have riddled historians since time immemorial. Sameer is currently completing doctoral research in Neuroscience at the University of Arizona.
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Read More about Josh SeidemanJosh Seideman
Junior Research Scientist
Josh Seideman
Junior Research Scientist
Josh is interested in the neural basis of cognitive processes such as reward learning, memory and addiction. Josh is now pursing his PhD in Neuroscience at Wake Forest University. In his free time Josh enjoys lifting weights.
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Read More about Eva TsuiEva Tsui
Lab Technician
Eva Tsui
Lab Technician
Eva Tsui started as the lab manager/research assistant in January 2006 to August 2009. She is currently a 4th year optometry student at SUNY Optometry and will graduate Summer 2015.
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Read More about Adam WeissAdam Weiss
Lab Programmer
Adam Weiss
Lab Programmer
Adam is interested in the intersection of digital signals from the physical world and systems built with statistical learning algorithms to process them. In the Pesaran Lab, Adam designed and implemented the software for the realtime brain-machine interface decoding pipeline, integrated virtual reality software and motion capture systems and developed custom neural data acquisition systems. When not building or characterizing experimental infrastructure, Adam also implemented feature transforms for neural data and analyzed neural and behavioral data. Adam is now squashing bugs in Bitcoin software.
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Read More about Yan WongYan Wong
Postdoctoral Fellow
Yan Wong
Postdoctoral Fellow
Yan’s research interests are in building neural prosthetics to help those suffering from sensory or motor deficits. In the Pesaran Lab, he studied how the Posterior Parietal Cortex guides sensory-motor plans for effector-based decisions, as well translating this work into developing a Brain Machine Interface to allow neural control of an upper limb prosthetic. He focuses on understanding how different types of neural signals can be used to control prosthetic devices via state-of-the-art motion capture and neural recording systems. Before joining NYU, Yan worked with the Australian Vision Prosthesis Group developing the next generation of visual prosthetics. Yan is currently Lecturer at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
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Read More about Yuriria Vazquez ZuñigaYuriria Vazquez Zuñiga
Postdoctoral Fellow
Yuriria Vazquez Zuñiga
Postdoctoral Fellow
Visually guided eye-arm movements activate a myriad of cortical and subcortical brain circuits. However, how the neural activity among these cortical and subcortical circuits interacts to orchestrate eye-arm movement coordination is still an open question. Yuriria is interested in testing models that explain how visually-guided eye-arm movements are coordinated across large-scale cortical and subcortical circuits.
