Team

Undergraduate Students

Aiman Naqvi is a freshman majoring in Brain and Cognitive Science with a minor in Computer Science. He joined the lab in the Spring of 2022 and will be assisting Lab Manager with EEG procedures in an ongoing concurrent EEG-fMRI study.

Alumni

Yuetian (Vivian) Li is a master’s student in the Psychological Science program. Before joining the lab, she received a B.A. in Psychology and Integrative Biology Honor from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is interested in combining multiple levels of analysis including brain activity, behavioral task performances, and self-report measures to unravel the cognitive and neural correlates of emotion regulation relevant to self-injury and depression. She is currently working on the data analysis of the depression project that investigates the attentional and processing bias of people with previous depressive episodes when they interpret ambiguous emotional and perceptual stimuli.

Sunaina Karanth received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a concentration in Behavioral Neuroscience. She joined the CONNECT lab fall of 2017 and assisted graduate student Max Egan on an EEG/fMRI project.

Sophia Giakas received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a concentration in Cognitive Neuroscience and has in minor in Sociology. Her involvement includes maintaining the daily operation of the lab, coordinating research projects, as well as data acquisition and analysis for a concurrent EEG-fMRI study.

Brad Yang received his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. His involvement in the lab included helping with the logistics and data collection. Currently, he is a Master’s student working in the Human Memory and Cognition Lab at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Jonathan Wirsich worked at the CONNECTlab from winter 2016 to 2018. He holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Aix-Marseille University and a M.Sc. in Computer Science from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. His research is focused on information integration and fusion of multimodal imaging such as concurrent EEG-fMRI and diffusion MRI to better understand the dynamic and static properties of whole-brain networks in healthy and clinical populations (epilepsy, stroke). He is now working as maître-assistant (senior researcher) at the University of Geneva, pushing the limits of concurrent EEG-fMRI at 7T.

Google Scholar

Research Gate

Richard O. Bidó-Medina received his ‘Doctor of Medicine’ (M.D.) degree from Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He joined the Neuroscience Program of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Fall 2014, when he obtained the Fulbright Scholarship of the USA Department of State. His research interests are related to understanding the neural correlates of neurological and psychiatric disorders by utilizing neuroimaging techniques in order to improve their diagnosis and treatment. He is now working as a psychiatric resident at Harvard-MGH.

Ezra Winter-Nelson received his Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Cellular Biology with a minor in Computer Science. His involvement in the lab included data acquisition and analysis. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at Dallas studying Cognition and Neuroscience.

Edwin Guzman received his Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Psychology. His involvement in the lab included clinical assessment, SCID-5 administration, and website management. His clinical assessment and SCID-5 involvement entail clinical outcome analysis and evaluation. Edwin’s website management involves HTML editing to update website content.

Lija Hoffman received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology on the pre-med track. She is interested in cognitive neuroscience, particularly the neural mechanisms of emotional regulation. Her involvement in the lab included aiding in EEG procedure. Currently, she is working in the NEAR lab at Northwestern University.

Coleen Long received her Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Psychology most interested in further understanding psychiatric disorders and their various treatments. Her involvement in the lab included coordinating research logistics for a clinical study, collecting clinical data, and assisting with EEG procedures. Currently, she is a UX Researcher at Bold Insight.

Brian McFarlin received his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a concentration in Cognitive Neuroscience. His responsibilities in the lab consisted of EEG administration and behavioral data analysis. Currently, he is an MHRIR candidate at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at UIUC.

Becca McWilliams has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a neuroscience emphasis. She joined the CONNECT lab in Fall 2017 and assisted Max Egan with EEG/fMRI procedure. Currently, she is working as an associate clinical research coordinator at Rush University Medical Center.

While at UIUC, Jessica Diaz studied Psychology with a concentration in Behavioral Neuroscience. She is interested in psychiatric disorders, and the clinical applications of research on the treatment of these disorders. Jessica was involved in coordinating research logistics for a clinical study, as well as assistance with EEG and fMRI procedures.

Jorge Maldonado is a student from Carolina, Puerto Rico in the Neuroscience Ph.D. program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Jorge received his B.S. in Biotechnology from Universidad del Este. His interests are to comprehend neurological and psychiatric disorders through the physical and functional brain states that characterize these disorders. He is dedicated to employing non-invasive techniques such as MRI to perform connectivity and morphometric analysis.

Research Assistant

While at UIUC, Laura Pritschet studied Psychology with a particular focus in Behavioral Neuroscience. She is interested in traumatic brain injury research and the impact damaged areas have on functions of executive control. After leaving our lab, Laura joined the graduate program at the University of California, Santa Barbara.