Who We Are

Current Members


BIO_0_BerganJoseph 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.


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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.

 


img_20180622_083113.jpgJoseph 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.


MarcMarcelo 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


P1000322Addison 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.


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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”.


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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.