core staff
Howard Rosen, M.D.
Dr. Howard Rosen is director of the CPB and an Associate Professor at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in the Department of Neurology. After receiving his M.D. from Boston University School of Medicine, he trained in internal medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and completed his residency at UCSF. Dr. Rosen pursued fellowship training in brain imaging at the Washington University School of Medicine and then returned to UCSF to join the Memory and Aging Center in 1999. His primary area of interest is in the organization of emotional systems in the brain and how these systems are affected in different forms of neurodegenerative disease.
Virginia Sturm, Ph.D.
Dr. Sturm is an Assistant Professor and neuropsychologist at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in the Department of Neurology. She is associate director of the CPB and the director of the Clinical Affective Neuroscience Lab (CAN Lab), an affiliate of the CPB. After undergraduate work at Georgetown University, she received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and subsequently completed her clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at UCSF. Her research focuses on identifying the neural systems that support emotion and social behavior and how these systems break down in neurodegenerative disease.
David Perry, M.D.
Dr. Perry graduated from medical school at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He completed an internship in internal medicine and residency in neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota where he also researched obsessive-compulsive features in dementia. He is a clinical instructor and fellow in behavioral neurology at the Memory and Aging Center and participates in the evaluation and treatment of patients in the MAC clinic. His current area of research interest is the impact of neurodegenerative illness on reward processing.
SAMIR DATTA
Originally from San Jose California, Samir Datta graduated from Northwestern University in 2014 with a BA degree in cognitive science. He worked as a research assistant in an auditory research laboratory on two main projects: examining the variability of hearing thresholds at the lower end of the frequency range and exploring the effects of psychoacoustic training on otoacoustic emissions. Samir also volunteered in a visual cognition lab, assisting with the generation of visual stimuli for experiments. Samir has been with Dr. Howard Rosen’s lab as a research coordinator since July 2014 and is currently working as a data analyst. He assists with an emotional learning and insight study as well as writing scripts to expedite the data analysis. In his free time, Samir enjoys playing piano/guitar, cooking and spending time with his dogs.
Eena Kosik
Eena Kosik is a research coordinator who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science. During her time at Berkeley, Eena worked as a research assistant in Dr. Robert Levenson’s lab doing facial coding of patients with neurodegenerative diseases. She then spent her final two years in Dr. Robert Knight’s lab completing an honor’s thesis on the neural mechanisms of prediction through electroencephalography brain recordings.
Eena has been a research coordinator at the MAC since June 2017. She works in assisting Dr. Virginia Sturm with the psychophysiology involved in emotional and social functioning in neurodegenerative diseases as well as neurodevelopmental disorders.
Eena has been a research coordinator at the MAC since June 2017. She works in assisting Dr. Virginia Sturm with the psychophysiology involved in emotional and social functioning in neurodegenerative diseases as well as neurodevelopmental disorders.
Nathan Morris
Nathan is a research coordinator who comes from Marin County. He graduated Stanford in 2018 with a degree in psychology. At Stanford he worked as a research assistant in Dr. James Gross' lab studying the regulation of emotions in groups as well as the emotional dynamics between group members. Since starting work with the lab in July 2018 Nathan has worked with Dr. Virginia Sturm studying the emotional and social dynamics of populations with neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental diseases.
Ashlin Roy
Ashlin earned his Bachelor of Science in psychology at the University of Oregon in 2016. As an undergraduate, he assisted several labs that study the neurobiological basis of behavior. After graduating, Ashlin worked as a lab manager at the University of Massachusetts Boston for Dr. Keith Welker and Dr. Rhiana Wegner. Currently, Ashlin is a data analyst at UCSF's Memory and Aging Center for Dr. Virginia Sturm and Dr. David Perry. He is interested in studying the neural substrates of affective and reward processes, as well as psychiatric disorders associated with deficits in these areas.
Tiffany chow
Tiffany Chow joined the CAN Lab as a postdoctoral scholar in 2018. She received her PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2017. Her graduate work assessed the neural correlates of episodic memory retrieval through the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging, transcranial direct current stimulation, and wearable camera technology.
Volunteers
Avalon Baldwin
Avalon will graduate Mills College in 2014 with a BA degree in Biopsychology. At Mills, she volunteers in the Mills Cognition Lab, where she aids Dr. Christie Chung in studying memory and aging across cultures and between religions. Avalon also taught both martial arts and health classes (not at the same time) and started a Journal Club on campus to fill up free time. In the future Avalon wants to work with older individuals to further understand cognitive senescence, and, of course, to know what she is looking forward to in the future.
tania gennell
Tania earned her degree from UCLA in Linguistics in 2011. At UCLA's Language Acquisition Lab, she worked primarily on studies for bilingual infants, testing if they had a preference for either Spanish or English based on syllable segmentation or babbling patterns, for example. She enjoys studying languages and exploring their connection to neurology. While it is too early to decide, she hopes to pursue a career involving neuroscience. Next year, she will apply to medical school.
leah leinweber
Leah Leinweber volunteers at the CPB to garner more research experience. Leah is also a Community Enrichment Coordinator for seniors with Alzheimers and Dementia in Oakland, CA. As a coordinator, Leah is responsible for creating a rich and stimulating environment and orchestrating activities for seniors living with varying degrees of Dementia. Leah is interested in pursuing a dual degree MSW/ MPH with an emphasis on working with an aging population.
anthony saroyan
Anthony will graduate from San Francisco State Uiniversity (SFSU) in 2014 with a B.A degree in Psychology. While at SFSU, he was a board member for United Students for Veterans Health, which is a volunteer group aimed at assisting veterans in the community. He also volunteered at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in San Francisco for the Recreational Therapy Depatrment. Currently he works as an after-school chess teacher at various school around San Francisco. After graduating from SFSU, Anthony will continue his education in psychology; he plans to attend graduate school with an emphasis in clinical psychology.
Alumni
Isabel Sible
Isabel Sible is a research coordinator at the CAN Lab. Isabel graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015 with a BA degree in Cognitive Science. While at Cal, she volunteered in Dr. Robert Levenson's Berkeley Psychophysiology Lab, exploring social and emotional changes that can occur in neurodegenerative diseases. During her last year at Cal, Isabel completed an Honor's Thesis in Dr. Robert Knight's Cognitive Neuroscience Lab that focused on reconstructing music from intra-cranial recordings of the human brain. Isabel joined the Memory and Aging Center in May 2015.
Jessica Zakrzewski, MRes.
Jessica Zakrzewski is the lab manager for the CPB. Jessica graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2003 with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology. while at Minnesota, Jessica worked with Dr. Charles Nelson in his cognitive developmental neuroscience lab on a behavioral study on infant fear reactivity. After graduating she worked as a psyhophysiologist at the Minnesota Center for Twin & Family Research and a project coordinator at the Injury Prevention Center at the University of North Carolina. In 2008 Jessica received her masters of research in psychology from the University of Manchester where she focused in her master's work on conceptual knowledge differentiation and vulnerability to depression. Jessica joined the Memory and Aging Center in 2010.
Carole Scherling, Ph.D.
Dr. Scherling is a postdoctoral student at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. After undergraduate work at the University of Ottawa, she completed a masters degree in neurological sciences at McGill University and a doctorate in behavioral neurosciences at the University of Ottawa. Her past research focused on mild clinical impairments in both healthy and clinical populations using MRI and fMRI techniques, neuropsychological assessments and biological markers. Her current research centers on behavioral and neurophysiological measurements of insight and cognitive abilities in patients with neurodegenerative disease.
Alice Hua
Alice Hua is a research coordinator at the CAN Lab. Alice graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012 with a B.A. degree in psychology. While at Cal, she volunteered at the Matthew Walker Sleep & Neuroimaging Lab and Gopnik Cognitive Development Lab, exploring the effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive tasks as well as testing three-year-old's spatial cognition strategies. Alice later joined the Greater Good Science Center where she investigated and published digests on gratitude, mindfulness, and empathy. Before joining the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, Alice worked for the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) examining San Francisco nightlife.
