MBCT Graduate Alumni

Nick Rommelfanger

Nick is an Applied Physics PhD student working in the Hong Neurotechnology Lab. He studies novel minimally-invasive neuromodulation techniques involving microwaves, radio frequencies, and focused ultrasound, all of which offer high tissue penetration depths with opportunities for modulation of deep brain regions. Nick received his undergraduate training in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Outside of the lab, he enjoys hiking, running, and surfing.

YoungJu Jo

 I am an Applied Physics PhD student working at the intersection of experimental and theoretical neuroscience under the supervision of Professors Karl Deisseroth and David Sussillo. My current research focuses on identifying and controlling the logic of neural population dynamics through data-driven optogenetic perturbation approaches. It was motivated by my previous works that I combined holographic optics with machine learning for biomedical applications at cellular scales, which were commercialized by Tomocube.

Emily Dahl

Emily is an Electrical Engineering PhD student, working in Kim Butts Pauly's MR-focused ultrasound group in the Radiology Department. Her primary research interest involves decreasing the invasively of clinical neurostimulation treatments using MR-guided focused ultrasound. Prior to attending Stanford, she received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Harvard University in 2019, triple minoring in Global Health and Health Policy, Catalan Studies, and Spanish Studies.

Sreela Kodali

Sreela Kodali is an EE PhD student at Stanford University and recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She graduated from Princeton University in 2018 with a BSE in Electrical Engineering and is interested in hardware-software co-design for brain computer interfaces. In her current work with Professors Subhasish Mitra and E.J. Chichilnisky, she is developing an embedded hardware system to emulate the neural code for high-acuity vision restoration.

Corey Fernandez

Corey is a Neuroscience PhD Student co-advised by Anthony Wagner and Lisa Giocomo. She is interested in the processes that organize memory representations into ‘cognitive maps’ that guide future behavior. Her work combines fMRI, virtual reality navigation tasks, and neural pattern similarity analyses to examine how we integrate new experiences with existing memory representations and flexibly update our knowledge across learning.

Shaw Hsu

Shaw is a Biophysics PhD student in the Wagner Lab. He is interested in memory processes and their interactions with selective attention. His work uses a combination of behavioral, neuroimaging, and electrophysiological methods.

Kevin T. Feigelis

Kevin T. Feigelis is a PhD candidate at Stanford University in the Department of Physics. A New Jersey native, he attended Rutgers University where he was awarded his Bachelor's in Physics, Summa Cum Laude. He is currently a member of the Stanford Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SNAIL), directed by Prof. Daniel Yamins. Kevin's research is directed at addressing a fundamental question that lies at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience: What neural mechanisms enable humans to be such wonderfully adaptive learners?

Akshay Jagadeesh

Akshay Jagadeesh is a 4th year PhD student studying cognitive neuroscience, advised by Justin Gardner. His research examines how attention enhances the resolution of visual perception, with a particular emphasis on the neural representation of visual textures. In the future, Akshay hopes to continue to build more sophisticated biologically-plausible deep neural network models of visual perception that account for cognitive factors such as attention.

Arielle Keller

I am a Neurosciences PhD student and NDSEG fellow working with Dr. Leanne Williams and Dr. Kalanit Grill-Spector. My research focuses on understanding how our brains allocate attention to help us reach our goals and how these processes can become impaired in individuals experiencing mental illness. Toward this goal I use a variety of methods including functional magnetic resonance imaging, electro-encephalography, clinical reports, human genetics, and computational analysis techniques. Previously, I studied multisensory attention with Dr. Robert Sekuler and earned my co-terminal M.S.

Aran Nayebi

I am currently a PhD student in the Neurosciences Graduate Program, co-advised by Surya Ganguli and Dan Yamins. Previously, I completed my M.S. in Computer Science and B.S. in Mathematics & Symbolic Systems at Stanford. My primary interests lie at the intersection of machine learning and neuroscience, where I use tools from deep learning to approach problems in systems neuroscience. Specifically, I am interested in using what we know about the visual system (e.g. the abundance of recurrent connections) to build more biologically realistic models of the ventral visual pathway.

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