Current Members
Joseph Bergan
Principle Investigator
PhD Neurosciences, Stanford University School of Medicine
BA Biological Sciences, Macalester College
From: Saint Paul, MN
Interests: Skiing, woodworking, and spending time with his family
We want to understand the principles of how social and defensive stimuli are encoded in the activity of neurons, and how this process can be modulated by behavior state, experience, and neuromodulation.
Jonathan Woodson
Fourth-year NSB PhD, UMass Amherst
BA Psychology, Boston University
From: Boston, MA
Interests: Writing and drawing
I am interested in the neuromodulation of social behavior circuits and how this manifests in behaviors like aggression and predation.
Joseph Dwyer
Second-year NSB PhD., UMass Amherst
Biochemistry and Psychology, UMass Amherst ’17
From: Townsend, Massachusetts
Interests: I enjoy traveling and climbing tall hills and mountains.
My goal is to make connections between behavior and biology down to a cellular and molecular level in the nervous system.
Marcelo Henrique Correia
Third-year NSB PhD., UMass Amherst
Undergrad – Bachelor in Biology – State University of Maringá – Brazil, December 2012
Master of Science – Bioscience – State University of Maringá – Brazil, January 2015.
From: Maringá, Paraná State – Brazil.
Interest: Hiking, travelling and coffee.
I am interested in studying the activity of projections involving the hormone-dependent circuit of the amygdala.
Alumni
Addison Niemeyer
Research Assistant
BS Neural Circuitry and Physiology (BDIC), UMass Amherst ’16
From: Yardley, Pennsylvania
Interests: Fencing, cooking, and traveling.
I am interested in unpacking the sexually dimorphic differences in the development of neural circuits that underlie social behavior disorders such as ASD.
Prakruti Nanda
Lab Technician
Neuroscience/Behavior and Dance, Mount Holyoke College ’15
From: New Delhi, India
Interests: Dance, painting, beaches, guitar, cliff diving and Nutella.
I am fascinated by how gene and environment interactions occurring in critical neurodevelopment windows manifest as social behavior disorders, hinting at the different effects of “nature” and “nurture”.
Tal Inbar
Master’s student
Psychology and Computer Science, UMass Amherst ’15
From: Haifa, Israel
Interests: Longboarding, snowboarding and Netflix
I want to understand social behavior through electrophysiology and computational models of neuro-circuitry, along with developing open-source software systems for data acquisition and analysis.