Steve Chang, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology [profile]
Department of Neuroscience [profile]
Kavli Institute for Neuroscience
Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program
Cognitive Science
Child Study Center
Vernon B. Mountcastle Distinguished Fellow & Curator-in-Chief of the John F. Fulton Collection at the Olschefskie Institute for the Neurobiology of Knowledge
Ph.D. (Washington Univ. in St. Louis)
Amrita Nair, PhD
Lab coordinator / manager / postdoc
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.
Olga Dal Monte, PhD
Postdoctoral associate
Ph.D. (University of Turin & NIMH)
Olga received her PhD from University of Turin and NIMH. For her PhD, she worked with Bruno Averbeck and Betsy Murray. Olga is interested in the neural mechanisms behind social decision-making and gaze interactions.
Chengchi Chu, PhD
Postdoctoral associate
Ph.D. (Institute of Neuroscience, National Yang-Ming University)
Chengchi received his PhD in Neuroscience working with Chou Hung, where he studied visual receptive field tuning properties of macaque V1 neurons. Chengchi is interested in computational approaches to understanding the neural mechanisms of social behavior.
Matthew Piva, Ph.D.
Ph.D. student in the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (INP) - defended his Ph.D. in Neurosciences with Distinction on 10/25/2018
Matt received his BS in Physiology from University of British Columbia. He is interested in social gaze dynamics and neuroeconomics approaches using fMRI to studying the representations of self and other in the brain.
Jessica Joiner
Ph.D. student in Psychology
Jessica received her BS in Psychology from Sweet Briar College. She then worked at Columbia University before joining the lab. She is interested in how the brain relatively values social and nonsocial rewards in making decisions and theory of mind capacity/limitations in nonhuman animals.
Hannah Weinberg-Wolf
Ph.D. student in Psychology
Hannah received her BA degree in Biological Basis of Behavior from Johns Hopkins University and her MA degree in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University. She then worked at Princeton University before joining the lab. She is interested in how serotonin regulates socio-emotional processing and effortful control in the brain.
Siqi Fan
Ph.D. student in Psychology
Siqi received her BS degree in Neuroscience and Mathematics from Vassar College. She has research experience in a variety of organisms, from flies to humans. She is interested in causal mechanisms underlying social cognition and social decision-making.
Nicholas Fagan
Data Analyst
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.
Cameron Martel
Cameron is a Cognitive Science major undergraduate student in the lab interested in the serotonergic regulation of social and cognitive processing.
Kacey Fang
Kacey is a Cognitive Science major undergraduate student in the lab interested human genetic diversity in social cognition. A joint-student collaborating with Avram Holmes and Kevin Anderson.
Emma Blue Kirby
Emma is a cog sci and applied mathematics major working on a project looking at neuropharmacological modulations of social cognition.
Affilated Lab Members
Shay Ben Heim
Shay is a postdoctoral associate in Laurie Santo’s lab working on a cross-species project of consciousness.
Marianne Horn (joint w/ many other labs in the Neuroscience Department)
Marianne is a Research Associate, primarily in the Rakic lab. She helps with surgery preparation and MRI scanning.
Lab Alumni
(a selected listing; [Name] ([Role]–>[Next Destination]))
Weston Pack (postdoc–>Biomedical industry)
Courtney Turrin (grad student–>Wine business)
Kayla Velnoskey (grad student–>Data analysis industry)
Jason Morris (undergrad thesis–>WashU MD program)
Marios Tringides (undergrad thesis–>Duke Univ. Neurobiology PhD program)
Angelica Fuentes (undergrad thesis–>U Illinois Chicago MD program)
Doug Streat (undergrad thesis–>Yale Sch of Public Health program)
Spencer Birney (undergrad research–>Data science industry)
Shamma Ahmed (visiting student from Cornell–>back to Cornell)