CURRENT LAB MEMBERS
Principal Investigator
Josef Parvizi, MD, PhD
Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Josef received his MD from the University of Oslo and PhD in neurosciences from the University of Iowa. He completed his medical internship at Mayo Clinic and Neurology Residency at BIDMC-Harvard before joining the UCLA for fellowship training in Clinical Epilepsy and Neurophysiology. He moved to Stanford University in July 2007 and started the Human Intracranial Cognitive Electrophysiology Program (SHICEP). His research is now supported by NIH, Stanford NeuroVentures Program, National Science Foundation, and Stanford School of Medicine. Josef's expertise is in functional mapping of the human brain using the three methods of electrocorticography, electrical brain stimulation, and functional imaging.
Postdoctoral Trainees
Behzad Iravani, PhD
Behzad received his PhD in Medicine from Karolinska Institute in Stockholm - Sweden. He was trained as an engineer before his PhD work and his research interest involves using network science and computational models to advance precision medicine. Behzad is working on the ventromedial prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex and their role in processing emotional memories. Ultimately his research strives to improve mental health using combination of functional imaging, intracranial EEG, and direct cortical stimulation methods.
Dian Lyu, PhD
Dian received her Maters degree in Cognitive Neurosciences from University College London, and her Ph.D. in Clinical Neurosciences from University of Cambridge. Her previous work focused on default-mode-network functional connectivity and inter-network interactions across different brain states. She is interested in consciousness studies involving self-related cognition using intracranial EEG and electrical stimulation and precision mapping of anatomy and function by leveraging computational modeling.
James Stieger, PhD
James earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. His research was focused on brain computer interfaces using EEG signals. His interests lie in the intersection of machine learning and real-time brain recording. James joined the LBCN with the intent to discover how focal brain activity can be harnessed to decode brain function and how to improve it in conditions such as epilepsy
Weichen Huang, PhD
Weichen received his PhD in Engineering from South China University of Technology in Guangzhou. His previous research was primarily focused on brain signal processing and brain-computer interfaces using both scalp and intracranial EEG signals. He is interested in exploring how different brain regions work together across different cognitive tasks and developing real-time neuromodulation techniques aimed at enhancing brain functions.
Research Assistant
Zoe Lusk
Zoe received her B.S. in Neuroscience and a minor in Chemistry from Duke University, where she was a member of the Varsity Swim and Dive team. Her undergraduate thesis focused on the utilization of mental rehearsal and cognitive reappraisal to decrease test anxiety in undergraduate students. Her research interests include mental health and exploring neural networks associated with emotion. As the senior research assistant and lab manager Zoe is responsible for managing all experiments, data collection, and making sure the lab is operating well.
Sofia Pantis
Sofia is a recent graduate of the University of San Diego, where she majored in Behavioral Neuroscience and minored in Chemistry and Biomedical Ethics. Her Undergraduate Honors Thesis examined the mind-body connection as it relates to health, spanning topics such as the placebo effect, mind-body therapies, and stress. With LBCN, Sofia aims to explore the neural correlates of the self, consciousness, and emotion while improving our understanding of epilepsy. As a Research Assistant, Sofia not only conducts experiments but also supports the lab’s day to day functioning.
Alumni Trainees
Aaron (2016-2019)
Current Position: Faculty at Drexel University
Aaron Kucyi was a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School before joining the lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow. He received the prestigious Banting Fellowship from Canada while he was in the lab. After 3 years of postdoctoral fellowship with several publications, Aaron was recruited by Northeastern University.
Alberto (2014)
Current Position: Neurologist and PhD Researcher at the University of Lyon, France
Alberto Vogrig was a neurology resident at Verona University Hospital, Italy before joining the lab as a Visiting Scholar. After leaving the LBCN, he completed his residency and became an Attending Neurologist at Udine University Hospital, Italy. He now works as a Neurologist and PhD Researcher at the University of Lyon, France and French Reference Center for Paraneoplastic Neurological Syndromes and Autoimmune Encephalitis in Lyon, France.
Amy (2014-2019)
Current Position: Kinsa Inc.
Amy Daitch was a graduate student at Dr Mauricio Corbetta’s lab at Washington University in St. Louis before joining the lab. She received NSF postdoctoral fellowship during her postdoctoral fellowship. Amy left to work as a Data Scientist at Kinsa Health, a Silicon Valley startup.
Andreas (2007-2013)
Current Position: Faculty at UCSF
Andreas Rauschecker was an MD PhD student at Stanford doing neuroscience research with Dr Brian Wandell when he joined the lab as a rotating graduate student. He continued to pursue his medical career and became a Radiology Resident at University of Pennsylvania.
Anna (2022-2023)
Current Position: Undergraduate Student at Brown University
Anna Duong worked on functional and cytoarchitecural mapping of the human insula in a collaborative project with neuroscientists in Julich-Germany.
Anthony (2011-2014)
Current Position: Clinical Anesthesiologist
Anthony Kaveh was a medical student at Stanford when he joined the lab. He left the lab to pursue his residence in Anesthesiology.
Aslihan (2010-2011)
Current Position: Clearview Healthcare Partners
Aslihan Selimbeyoglu joined the lab as an international Fulbright Fellow. She transferred to Neuroscience PhD Program at Stanford and worked with Karl Deisseroth as her PhD Mentor. She then left for McKinsey Consulting in Istanbul.
Baotian (2017-2018)
Current Position: Fulltime Neurosurgeon at Tiantan Hospital - Beijing
Baotian Zhao was a Graduate Student in Functional Neurosurgery before joining the lab as a Visiting Scholar. After leaving the lab, he became a Ph.D. Student in Functional Neurosurgery at the Tiantan Hospital in Beijing where he continues to spearhead collaborative work with the LBCN.
Brett (2010-2014)
Current Position: Faculty at UPENN
Brett Foster was a Ph.D. student at Swinburne University of Technology before joining the lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow. He received a K99/R00 award and continued our collaborations with Dr. Anthony Wagner's Lab at Stanford. He was then recruited as an assistant professor to Baylor College of Medicine.
Chao (2019-2020)
Current Position: Neurosurgeon at Tiantan Hospital - Beijing
Chao received his MD Ph.D. at Capital Medical University and joined the lab for a visiting research project. He returned to Tiantan Hospital to continue his duties as a neurosurgeon scientist.
Chase (2008-2009)
Current Position: Faculty at UCLA
Chase Richard was an Undergraduate Student at Stanford University who joined the lab. He left the lab to study Medicine at UPENN
Dani (2016-2019)
Current Position: Graduate Student of Neuroscience at NYU
Dani Beam joined the lab as an Undergraduate Research Assistant. After leaving the lab, she became a Research Associate at Cedars-Sinai in Ueli Rutishauser's lab where she continued to pursue her research interests.
Deepika (2022)
Current Position: Medical Student at Stanford
Deepika graduated in Neuroscience with a secondary in Global Health and Health Policy from Harvard University. While a medical student at Stanford she got her MBA at Stanford Business School.
Dhruba (2008-2013)
Current Position: MD PhD Student at UC-Irvine
Dhruba Banerjee joined the lab as a High School Research Assistant. After leaving the lab, he became a Research Assistant at the Champalimaud Foundation. He graduated from UC Berkeley and pursued his M.D. Ph.D. at University of California Irvine.
Dora (2012-2013)
Current Position: Faculty at Mayo Clinic - Rochester
Dora Hermes was a Ph.D. Student at the UMC Utrecht in The Netherlands before joining the lab. She left the lab to become a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Psychology, Stanford.
Eileen (2021-2023)
Current Position: Undergraduate Student at Duke University
Eileen Ma joined the lab as an intern while a student at Harker high school. She left the lab to pursue a bachelor's degree with an interest in neuroscience.
Emily (2014-2015)
Current Position: Graduate Student at Washington University
Jen Chun "Emily" Hsiang was a Research Assistant at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, National Central University in Taoyuan County, Taiwan before joining the lab as a Visiting Scholar. She was then accepted to the Ph.D. Program in Neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis.
Janice (2008-2011)
Current Position: Faculty at Johns Hopkins University
Janice Chen was a Ph.D. Student in Dr. Anthony Wagner’s Lab at Stanford University where she collaborated directly with the LBCN. She was recruited to work as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University.
Jennifer (2014-2016)
Current Position: Pediatric Neurology Resident at Washington Medical Center
Jennifer Meylor was an undergraduate student when she joined the lab. She received the Best Honor Thesis Award for her research in the lab. She moved to University of Wisconsin to complete her medical school.
Jennifer (2010-2016)
Current Position: Faculty at NYU
Jennifer Shum was a Medical Student at Stanford University who joined the lab. After leaving the lab, she became a Stanford Neurology Resident and NYU Epilepsy Fellow.
Jennifer (2016-2019)
Current Position: Senior Quantitative UX Researcher at Instagram
Jennifer Yih was a Graduate Student at Vanderbilt University before joining the lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow. She then left to work as a Senior Data Scientist at Tala.
Jessica (2013-2017)
Current Position: Google
Jessica Schrouff was a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering at the University of Liege, Belgium before joining the lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Marie Curie fellow. She went to University College London where she worked as a Research Associate in the Department of Computer Science before she was recruited by Google Brain.
Jonathan (2010-2013)
Current Position: Faculty at NYU
Jonathan Winawer was a was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Wandell Lab at Stanford University and collaborated on several projects with us. He was recruited for a faculty position in Psychology and Neural Science at New York University where he has continued his research.
Kai (2011-2013)
Current Position: Faculty at Mayo Clinic - Rochester
Kai Miller joined the lab when he was a Neurosurgery Resident at Stanford. After completing his residency, he was recruited as an Assistant Professor in Neurosurgery at Mayo Clinic
Kapil (2014-2018)
Current Position: Epilepsy Fellow at UCLA
Kapil Gururanagan joined the lab as a Medical Student. After earning an MD from Stanford School of Medicine, he pursued his career in neurology at Mount Sinai Hospital - New York.
Kieran (2017-2018)
Current Position: Psychiatry Resident at UCSF (Research Track)
Kieran Fox completed his PhD in cognitive neuroscience at the University of British Columbia - Canada before becoming a Postdoctoral Fellow at the LBCN in 2017. He then continued as a medical student at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Leah (2009-2013)
Current Position: Orthopedic Surgery Resident at UCSF
Leah Demetri was an Undergraduate Student at Sanford University who completed her honor's thesis in the lab. Her thesis received Shuer Award at Stanford. She was accepted to Harvard Medical School.
Lin (2017-2018)
Current Position: Associate Chief Neurosurgeon at the Tiantan Hospital in Beijing
Lin Shi was an Attending Neurosurgeon at the Tiantan Hospital, Beijing before joining the lab as a Visiting Scholar.
Mac (2015-2016)
Current Position: Faculty at The University of Sydney - Australia
Mac Shine was a NHMRC CJ Martin Fellow before joining Dr. Poldrack's lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow. He completed a collaborative project in which he analyzed the profile of causal connectivity in the brain using the existing LBCN dataset.
Mike (2018-2021)
Current Position: Resident in Anesthesiology at Harvard
Mike Veit received his PhD in applied physics and then MD from Stanford University. He joined the LBCN while he was a medical student and was involved, at the postdoctoral level with studies of cortical effective causal connectivity.
Mohammad (2008-2012)
Current Position: Faculty at Loma Linda University
Mo Dastjerdi received his MD from Iran and was working as a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley before joining the lab. After his second successful postdoctoral training at LBCN, he went on to do his residency training at Loma Linda University Medical Center.
Muge (2010-2012)
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow at NYU
Muge Ozker was a Master’s Student in Biomedical Engineering at Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey before joining the lab as a Visiting Scholar. After leaving the lab, she was accepted to a Ph.D. program in Neuroscience at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.
Nan (2019-2020)
Current Position: Neuroscience Graduate Student at Julich - Germany
Nan Liu is a Ph.D. student in Psychology at Guangzhou University who joined the lab as a Visiting Scholar in 2019. After leaving the LBCN, she has returned to her studies in Guangzhou where she continued to collaborate with the LBCN.
Pedro (2018-2022)
Current Position: Faculty at UCSF
Pedro Pinheiro-Chagas completed his PhD in cognitive neuroscience at Sorbonne University (Paris) with Stanislas Dehaene as his research mentor. Pedro joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow working on a project involving arithmetic processing.
Ren (2016-2017)
Current Position: Lecturer at Union University - Beijing
Ren Na was a Ph.D. student at Peking University before joining the lab as a Visiting Scholar. She returned to Beijing but continues to collaborate with the lab
Rodrigo (2018-2020)
Current Position: Faculty at Northwestern
Rodrigo Braga worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Randy Buckner's lab at Harvard before joining the lab to pursue a second postdoctoral training supported by a K99/R00 grant. He was recruited to Northwestern University as an Assistant Professor.
Shrita (2014-2018)
Current Position: Medical Student at UCSD
Shrita Pendekanti joined the lab as a High School Research Assistant. She was then accepted to University of California, Los Angeles as an undergraduate student.
Sina (2016-2018)
Current Position: Neurophysiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital
Sina Salehi was an Assistant Professor at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences before joining the lab as a Visiting Scholar. After leaving the lab, he became an Assistant Professor at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.
Srijani (2017-2019)
Current Position: Graduate Student at Harvard
Srijani Saha joined the lab as a High School Research Assistant. She left the lab to pursue a Computational Neuroscience degree at University of Southern California.
Stephan (2015-2017)
Current Position: Faculty at School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Stephan Bickel was a Neurology Resident at Einstein/Montefiore, NY before joining the lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow. He then left the lab after being recruited to work as an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Hofstra-Northwell School of Medicine, NY. He now works as a Co-Director of Human Brain Mapping Laboratory at The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research.
Su (2017-2019)
Current Position: Faculty at Beijing Language and Culture University
Su Liu completed her bachelor in biomedical engineering at Capital University of Medical Science, Beijing, China and went on to receive a PhD from University of Houston Texas before joining the lab. Su returned to Beijing to pursue a research and teaching career.
Ying (2018-2019)
Current Position: Faculty at Guangdong University - China
Ying Fang was a Ph.D. student in psychology at South China Normal University before joining the lab as a Visiting Scholar. She then returned to China to pursue a research career.
Research Assistants and Lab Managers
2009-2011: Sharmin Nasrullah
Current Position: Senior Director at AstraZeneca
Sharmin was a Senior Yield Enhancement Engineer at Actel Corporation before joining the lab. She went on to receive a degree in Bioengineering at Stanford after leaving the lab. She now works as a Manager in Solution Consulting at Veeva Systems.
2011-2015: Vinitha Rangarajan
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Pennsylvania
Vinitha completed her Undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego before joining the lab. She left the lab to pursue a Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience in the Dept of Psychology at University of California Berkeley.
2013-2015: Sandra Gattas
Current Position: MD PhD candidate at University of California Irvine
Sandra was an Undergraduate Researcher in Dr. Daryl Eggers’ lab before joining the lab. She left the lab to pursue an M.D. Ph.D. at the University of California Irvine.
2015-2016: Xiaofang Yang
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow at UCSF
Xiaofang was a Master’s Student at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China before joining the lab. She left the lab to pursue a Ph.D. at Princeton University.
2016-2018: Omri Raccah
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale
Omri was a Research Assistant and Lab Manager at the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at University of California San Diego Department of Cognitive Science before joining the lab. Since leaving the lab, he has continued to collaborate on lab projects while pursuing a Ph.D. at the Poeppel Lab in the NYU Department of Psychology.
2016-2018: So Ri Baek
Current Position: Consultant at Bain & Company
Sori completed her B.S. in Psychology at the University of Minnesota before joining the lab. She left the lab after being accepted to a joint Psychology & Neuroscience Ph.D. Program at Princeton University.
2018-2019: Serdar Akkol
Current Position: Neurology resident at the University of Alabama Birmingham
Serdar was a Medical Student at Istanbul University, Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine before joining the lab. He then went on to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience at Elmezzi Graduate School at Northwell Health, New York.
2018-2020: Clara Sava-Segal
Current Position: PhD Candidate at Dartmouth College
Clara completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago before joining the lab as a Research Assistant. After two years in the lab, she was accepted into Dartmouth College’s Ph.D. program in Cognitive Neuroscience.
2020-2022: Claire Perry
Current Position: MD Candidate at Yale School of Medicine
Claire received dual bachelor degrees in Neuroscience and Biology from the University of Chicago. Her undergraduate thesis explored the electrophysiological correlates of emotional face perception in Borderline Personality Disorder. Her research interests include exploring emotion and cognition in the brain.