PEOPLE

Marc G. Berman

Principal Investigator

Marc Berman is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. He received his B.S.E. in Industrial and Operations Engineering (IOE) from the University of Michigan, his Ph.D. in Psychology and IOE from the University of Michigan, and received post-doctoral training at the University of Toronto’s Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest. Before arriving to Chicago he was an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of South Carolina. Understanding the relationship between individual psychological and neural processing and environmental factors lies at the heart of his research. His lab utilizes brain imaging, behavioral experimentation, computational neuroscience and statistical models to quantify the person, the environment, and their interactions.

To view a list of Marc’s publications, please visit his Google Scholar page.

Marc G. Berman – CV (2020)

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Kyoung Whan Choe

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Kyoung is a cognitive neuroscientist, who uses simple games, brain imaging, eye-tracking, and machine learning to study how the internal and external environment affects human cognition. He currently focuses on … Read more

Kim Lewis Meidenbauer

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Currently, Kim is a joint Post-Doc and Social Sciences Teaching Fellow. Her current projects include employing functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure brain activity in naturalistic settings and elaboratinghow heat stress influences cognitive proce… Read more

Omid Kardan

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Omid is a post-doctoral scholar in the Cognition Attention and Brain Lab and the Environmental Neuroscience Lab interested in cognitive and environmental neuroscience. His specific topic of research is the relationship … Read more

Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez

Post-Doctoral Fellow

I was a graduate student in the Integrative Neuroscience program working with Dr. Berman. I received a BS in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009. After graduation, I … Read more

Doctoral Students

Andrew Stier

Ph.D. Student

I am a graduate student in the Integrative Neuroscience program. I received a BA in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Chicago in 2016. My research interests center on understanding … Read more

Gaby Akcelik

Ph.D. Student

Gaby is a second-year student in the Integrative Neuroscience Program at the University of Chicago. She received her B.S. in Psychology and completed minors in neuroscience and music technology … Read more

Kathryn Schertz

Ph.D. Student

I am a graduate student in the Integrative Neuroscience program. I have a B.A. in Cognitive Science from the University of Pennsylvania. I am interested in how time in natural environments … Read more

Lab Staff & Master RAs

Xihan Zhang

Lab Manager/Research Assistant

I received my M.S. degree in Computational Biology at Harvard in 2019. My interest focuses on the functional organization of the mind and computational algorithms that can extract the network… Read more

Weijie Xiao

Master Research Assistant

Wei is currently a graduate student in MAPSS. Their main research interests include attention restoration and the impact of nature environments on mental health. Their master’s thesis uses eye tracking and functional MRI to explore the relationship between attention shifting and working memory performance under the mediating effect of environmental scenery.

Annie Li

Master Research Assistant

I am a master’s student in the MAPSS program with a concentration on psychology. I received my B.S. in psychology at the University of California, San Diego. I have broad research interests concerning environmental influence on social decision making. Currently I am working with Dr. Meidenbauer on a project regarding impulsivity measured by the stop signal task.

"Selina" Tianyue Niu

Master Research Assistant

I am a first-year Master’s student in Computational Social Science. Right now I’m assisting in projects related to spatial data science and shared transportation. I’m interested in integrating cognitive science with computational transportation simulation to evaluate ride-sharing.

Zhuang Chu

Master Research Assistant

I am a master student in MAPSS program. I received my B.S.in Psychology with minor in Computer Science from the Tsinghua University in China, 2017. I have long interests in cognitive neuroscience and computational methods,specifically, how we could leverage them for better well-being emotionally and cognitively.Currently I am doing my thesis in the lab, working on the fNIRS environmental neuroscience project.

Nak Won Rim

Master Research Assistant

I am currently in the Master in Computational Social Science program. I am assisting in projects related to various topics such as self-control and visual attention. My research interest centers on top-down control and executive functions… Read more

Tianxin Zheng

Master Research Assistant

Tianxin is a Master student in the Computational Social Science Program and she’s currently working on the street psychology project in the lab. She’s interested in measuring people’s perceptions of the built environment using computational methods.

Undergraduate RAs

Tanvi Lakhtakia

Undergrad Research Assistant

Tanvi Lakhtakia is a fourth-year undergraduate student in psychology and neuroscience. She is doing an Honors Thesis investigating how visual attention is affected by exposure to natural environments. After graduating in 2020, she plans to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology and hopes to engage in both clinical practice and research.

Jillian Bowman

Undergrad Research Assistant

Jillian is a 4th year in the College studying Psychology. She has worked in the ENL since July of 2018. Her research interests include the effects of the environment on affect and impulsivity, and the way that certain traits influence one’s reaction to the environment. After graduation she plans to attend medical school and study public health.

Olivia Paraschos

Undergrad Research Assistant

I am a third year undergraduate student at the University of Chicago majoring in Neuroscience. My research interests focus on examining the relationship between environmental factors and cognitive performance as well as the broader intersection of neuroscience and behavior.

Noor Admin

Undergrad Research Assistant

Noor is a first-year student at the College studying neuroscience and game design. Her interests include bidirectionality between humans and their external environment, and she is currently working on a project involving changes to participants’ cognitive abilities in response to different virtual environments.

Uday Saharia

Undergrad Research Assistant

I’m a sophomore studying Computer Science at the University of Chicago. I’m currently involved with research related to the analysis of datasets of fMRI scans and related stress levels in human beings.