Director
Steve W. C. Chang, PhD 
[CV]
Associate Professor of Psychology and of Neuroscience
Ph.D. (Washington Univ. in St. Louis)
Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Neuroscience Major (NSCI)
[link]Department of Neuroscience [
profile]
Kavli Institute for Neuroscience [
link]
Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program [link]
Child Study Center [link]
Associated Faculty Member, Yale MacBrain Resource Center [link]
Yale Center for Brain and Mind Health (CBMH) [link]
Steve is a Korean-American scientist interested in the neural mechanisms underlying complex social behaviors.
Postdoctoral Associates & Associate Research Scientist
Amrita Nair, PhD
Associate Research Scientist
Ph.D. (Duke University)
Amrita received her PhD from Duke University working with Michael Platt. For her PhD work, she examined how social status is represented in the posterior cingulate cortex. She helps oversee and manage the lab. She is also involved in various research projects around the lab.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D. (Washington University in St. Louis)
Weikang received his PhD in Neurosciences working with Camillo Padoa-Schioppa, where he studied the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying value guided decision-making in the orbitofrontal cortex. Weikang is interested in studying the neural mechanisms underlying complex social interaction. Weikang is a Wu Tsai Institute postdoctoral fellow co-mentored by Chang, Nandy, and Jadi.
Postdoctoral Associate
Ph.D. (Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Guangyao received his PhD in Neurosciences working with Liping Wang, where he studied the computational and frontoparietal circuit mechanisms of causal inference in multisensory perception. Guangyao is interested in studying the neural mechanisms underlying social decision-making.
Soo-Ji Baek, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Ph.D. (Korea Institute of Science and Technology)
Soo-Ji received her PhD in Neuroscience working with Keiko Tanaka-Yamamoto, where she studied the circuit mechanisms underlying depression-like behaviors and affective processes in VTA-projecting cerebellar neurons. Soo-Ji is interested in studying inter-regional coordination underlying complex social interaction in the brain.
Taylor Wise, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D. (Brown University)
Taylor received her PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience working with Rebecca Burwell at Brown University, where she studied the relationship between spatial and social processing in rodents. Taylor is also a recipient of the F99/K00 Award from NINDS, and is interested in social states in the brain.
Software Engineer
Nicholas Fagan
Software Engineer / Programmer
(Yale Class of 2015)
Nick received his BS in Psychology (with Distinction, Neuroscience Track) from Yale University. He is interested in computational neuroscience and anything that is computer science related.
Graduate Students
Olivia Meisner
Graduate Student
Olivia received her BS degree in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology from Emory University. For her research prior to coming to Yale, Olivia studied the development of social attention at Emory and worked on animal models of autism spectrum disorder at MIT. Olivia is interested in neural mechanisms underlying complex social interactions. Olivia is a Gruber Science Fellow, and also a NSF Graduate Research Fellow.
Megha Chawla
Graduate Student
Megha received her BA degree in Psychology from University of Southern California, followed by receiving her Masters level degree in Neuroscience from University College London. Afterwards, she conducted several fMRI studies in humans, including working with Ifat Levy at Yale University School of Medicine. Megha is interested in neural mechanisms underlying social decision-making in humans. Megha is a Manton Foundation Fellow.
Sylvia Blackmore
Graduate Student
Sylvia received her BA degree in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College and Psychology from UC Berkeley. She also received her Masters of Science degree from University College London in Dual Brain and Mind Sciences. She has research experience in computational modeling and neuronal data analyses. Sylvia is a Wu Tsai Institute Graduate Student Fellow.
Jamie Masthay
Graduate Student
Jamie received her BS degree in Psychology from UConn. She has extensive research experience in investigating how catecholamine systems in the brain regulate motivated behaviors. She is generally interested in the neuropsychopharmacological aspects of complex social behaviors.
Prabaha Gangopadhyay
Graduate Student
Prabaha received his integrated BS and MS degrees in Biology from the Indian Institute of Science. For his research prior to joining the lab, Prabaha worked on understanding neural mechanisms of high-level vision in the inferior temporal cortex. Prabaha is interested in neural mechanisms underlying social behavior.
Robert Vera
Graduate Student
Robert received his BA in Psychology from Providence College, where he studied sociality and memory in rodents. Before beginning his graduate studies at Yale, he coordinated animal cognition research at Georgia State University. He is particularly interested in the neural underpinnings of complex social states.
Postbac Researcher
Efe Dogruoz
Postbac Researcher
Efe received his BS degree in Neuroscience from the University of Chicago in 2023. He is interested in the neural mechanisms underlying social cognition and behavior, as well as how these mechanisms are affected by psychopathology.
Undergraduate Students
Gargi Nandy
Visiting Student
Gargi is a neuroscience major at Brandeis University. She is developing an automated protocol for analyzing social vocalization in the lab.
Katherine Chou
Undergraduate Student
Katherine is a junior in Silliman College studying neuroscience. She is interested in decision-making in social and non-social contexts and understanding how our minds interact with an increasingly technological world. She is specifically intrigued by dynamics of trust, uncertainty, and influence.
Noor Nouaili
Undergraduate Student
Noor Nouail is a neuroscience major in Jonathan Edwards College at Yale University. She is interested in social behaviors, social cognition, and the influence of drug interventions on prosocial and antisocial behaviors.
Maylyn Mei
Visiting Undergraduate Student
Maylyn is a NIH-BP-ENDURE fellow who is visting our lab to do summer research. She is a rising Senior majoring in Psychology with a minor in philosophy at CUNY Hunter College. In NYC she researches in the Emotional Regulation Lab, where she studies social comparison among anxious adolescents on social media under Jen De Rutte. She is interested in social judgement and decision making, and plans to pursue a PhD in neuropsychology.
Collaborating Clinical Residence Fellows
William Li, MD PhD
Psychiatry Resident, Neuroscience Research Training Program (NRTP)
M.D., Ph.D. (Harvard University)
Will is a Yale psychiatry NRTP resident interested in uncovering mechanisms that go awry in psychosocial disorders using rodent models, and exploring novel treatment options to restore behavioral function. He is involved in a joint project with the lab of Jane Taylor investigating the neural mechanisms of prosocial and antisocial behaviors.
Henry Kietzman, MD PhD
Psychiatry Resident, Neuroscience Research Training Program (NRTP)
M.D., Ph.D. (Emory University)
Henry is a Yale Psychiatry NRTP resident interested in investigating the neurobiological and behavioral determinants of pro-sociality in rodent models and applying this knowledge to clinical populations. He is involved in a joint project with the lab of Jane Taylor investigating the neural mechanisms of prosocial and antisocial behaviors.
Other Members
Coco Chang & Apollo Chang
Official lab mascots
Coco (left) is a friendly, loving, and sometimes goofy old english sheep dog. She loves hiking and hanging out with people =) Apollo is a very curious dude (puppy on the right) and adores Coco.
