2011 Entering Class!

Grant Fiddyment received undergraduate degrees in english and mathematics from the University of Georgia. He also received an M.A. in mathematics with an emphasis on applied mathematics — particularly dynamical systems and numerical algorithms. His current research interests include building functional maps of the brain at a variety of spatial scales and neuropathologies such as epilepsy. In his spare time, Grant enjoys playing ultimate frisbee and the saxophone.

Katrina Furth received a BS in Brain and Cognitive Science from the University of Rochester in 2010. Her research interests involve understanding how exercise, sleep, and insults during development can modulate the disease course of psychiatric and neurological disorders. She has previous research experience in cognitive science and neuroanatomy. Katrina enjoys traveling, sewing, and playing board games.

Allison Quach graduated from MIT with a B.S. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences and minors in Biology and Music. She has had experience in analyzing electrophysiology data and in cellular and molecular neurobiology. Her research interests are in applying molecular and electrophysiological techniques to study circuits and behaviors.

Nicholas Robinson recently graduated from The University of Edinburgh’s Neuroscience undergraduate program where he developed a particular interest for the encoding, storage and retrieval of episodic memories. He has experience performing lesion studies and in vivo tetrode recordings from the hippocampus of behaving animals.  He is also a keen tennis and squash player and enjoys hiking and rock climbing.

Lena Sherbakov is a graduate of the University of Washington with a M.S. in Applied Mathematics; she received her B.S. degrees at the College of William and Mary in Mathematics and Physics.  As a student, she tackled problems in computational biology. For the past five years, Lena has worked for a biotech start-up and a research laboratory developing predictive mathematical models of human physiology and analyzing MRI images, respectively. She is interested in computation theories that unify attention, memory, and learning processes across multiple organizational levels. She also enjoys traveling, bakeries, and books.

Jason Sherfey graduated from Vanderbilt University with a B.E. in Biomedical Engineering. He is a member of the computational neuroscience specialization at GPN and has extensive experience in neuroimaging, signal processing, and biomedical instrumentation from Vanderbilt, UCSD, and the pharmaceutical industry. He has broad interests in neuroscience, mostly involving the dynamics of neural networks. His long term goal is to contribute to the understanding and treatment of pathological dynamics in neurological and mental disorders. Outside the lab, Jason enjoys writing about neurophilosophical ideas and playing piano, pool, & ping-pong. He also loves experiencing new places, people, & subcultures.

Austin Soplata holds a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering, Radiological concentration, from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In the past he has worked at both Pacific Northwest and Oak Ridge National Laboratories. His interests include the intersection of mathematics with neuroscience and the development of brain-computer interface electrode technology.

Chris Watson graduated from MIT in 2007 with a B.S. in Brain & Cognitive Sciences. Since his graduation he has been a research assistant at Children’s Hospital Boston. He runs functional, structural, and diffusion MRI studies, investigating the effects of open heart surgery on children’s brain development. He also performs clinical brain mapping for epilepsy patients who are surgical candidates. When Chris has time, he likes to play the guitar, and likes football and baseball. (Good tidings for our student/faculty outings!!).

Ellen Witkowski graduated from Kenyon College with a B.A. in Neuroscience. For the past year she has been doing research in a molecular lab at OHSU looking at remyelination failure. At BU Ellen is hoping to focus on the pathophysiology of neurological disorders, especially Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Outside of school and lab, Ellen likes to stay active by running or playing softball and ultimate frisbee (speak to Grant we may have a team in the making!).

Maya Woodbury graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in neuroscience. Her research experiences range from examining the neuropeptide vasopressin in human brains to elucidating the cellular and molecular aspects of Parkinson’s disease using transgenic mice.  Her primary interest is the cellular and molecular basis of neurodegenerative disease. When she’s not at the bench, Maya enjoys running, photography and live music.