PEOPLE

Marc G. Berman

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

Riley Tucker

Riley Tucker

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Riley Tucker is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation and the Data Science Institute at the University of Chicago. His work seeks to advance and develop scientific theories about cities and neighborhoods using computational methods to merge traditional data sources with geospatially informed online data sets such as Twitter, Yelp, and Foursquare.   Read more

Amanda Seccia

Amanda Seccia

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Amanda received her B.A. in Psychology from Wilkes University in 2015 and her Ph.D. in the Department of Learning and Instruction at the University at Buffalo (UB) in 2021. Amanda managed the Pedagogy and Practice Lab at UB where she oversaw use of neuroimaging and psychophysiological measurement tools like functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG)… Read more

Doctoral Students

Andrew Stier

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

Gaby Akcelik

Ph.D. Student

Gaby is a doctoral 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 technologyRead more

Catherine Stevenson

Catherine Stevenson

Ph.D. Student

Catherine is a fourth year in the integrative-neuroscience program. She graduated from Princeton with a background and interest in exploring social and moral cognition at the intersection of various disciplines, including law and other societal institutions… Read more

Nak Won Rim

Nak Won Rim

P.h.D. Student

Nak Won is an incoming graduate student in the Integrative Neuroscience program. He received his bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Brain Cognitive Science from Korea University in 2019 and his master’s degree in Computation… Read more

Staff

Elizabeth Janey

Elizabeth Janey

Lab Manager & Research Assistant

Elizabeth received her B.S. in Psychology from the University of Iowa in 2021 where she researched the twitching movements that occur during REM sleep in mice and rats at developmental ages. Her current research interests focus on how different environments affect cognition… Read more

Alfred Chao

Alfred Chao

Research Assistant

Alfred holds a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Philosophy from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and is currently an MA student in the Computational Social Science program at the University of Chicago. His research interests include brain-based prediction of cognitive processes’ outcomes and exploring deep learning applications in neuroscience research.

Masters Students

Rudolf Hu

Rudolf Hu

Masters Research Assistant

I am a graduate student in the MAPSS program. I received my B.A. in Psychology from Queen’s University in Canada. My research interests focus on the study of cognitive and emotional dysfunctions (e.g., rumination) in mood disorders using neuroscience techniques.

Loizos Bitsikokos

Loizos Bitsikokos

Masters Research Assistant

Loizos is a graduate student in the MACSS program concentrating on sociology. He holds an Integrated Master’s in applied mathematics and physics and an MSc in mathematical modelling by the National Technical University of Athens (N.T.U.A.). His  research interests are interdisciplinary and include computational, mathematical and network sociology. His work at the Environmental Neuroscience Lab will focus on contagion of emotional sentiment in urban environments.

Yutai Li

Yutai Li

Master Research Assistant

I am a graduate student in the MACSS program. I received my B.A. in psychology and completed minor in management and business from Skidmore in 2021. My research interests center on cognitive psychology and visual perception, specifically I’m interested in image recognition neural network and human visual perception of pixelized images.

Chirag Mahapatra

Chirag Mahapatra

Graduate Research Assistant

Chirag is interested in uncovering insights from large scale data with applications in Social Science and Trust and Safety. He also has broader interests in innovation and entrepreneurship. He is pursuing grad studies at University of Chicago and holds a Master of Engineering from UC Berkeley and Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from NITK.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Isaaq Khader

Isaaq Khader

Undergrad Research Assistant

Isaaq is a fourth-year majoring in Psychology & Computer Science with a specialization in Machine Learning. He hopes to combine the concepts of Psychology with Computer Science to improve technology through Artificial Intelligence. As a Chicago native who grew up in Logan Square, he is excited to explore more about the relationships between socioeconomic status and a neighborhood’s environment. 

Kimberly Carrillo Rivera

Kimberly Carrillo Rivera

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Kimberly is a third-year undergraduate student studying Psychology and Environmental and Urban Studies. She is currently working on a research project looking at racial inequalities in prisons across the world and she is interested in research that observes how biological and environmental factors affect development in children and adults.

Maya Ordonez

Maya Ordonez

Undergrad Research Assistant

Maya is a fourth-year in the college studying Neuroscience and English. She is interested in studying how urbanization and socialization affect the lived situation of the individual and is currently involved in the Depression in Neighborhoods project with Andrew Stier and Kaylah Thomas.

Anya Samtani

Anya Samtani

Undergrad Research Assistant

Anya is a fourth-year undergraduate at UChicago majoring in Comparative Human Development and minoring in Human Rights. As a pre-med student, she has also taken many courses in the sciences. Anya has long been interested in areas of study that work to reduce harm and promote wellbeing through research. In her free time, Anya enjoys reading, knitting, and spinning yarn by hand!

Bobby Buyalos

Bobby Buyalos

Undergrad Research Assistant

Bobby is a rising second-year undergraduate at UChicago majoring in Mathematics and Economics. He is driven by a passion for the social sciences and is interested in using quantitative methods to answer important political, economic, and social questions. Outside of school, Bobby loves playing the saxophone, reading, and crocheting.

Katie Ambrose

Katie Ambrose

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Katie Ambrose is interested in how social media makes us feel, specifically, how addictive user interfaces affect attention. In 2024 she’ll graduate with BAs in Media Arts & Design (MAAD) and Sociology. Her thesis will be a sociology of dark patterns. After that, she hopes to continue studying the interactions between technology, our brains, and each other. Hobbies include: swimming in the lake, poorly playing bridge, photography, and spending the majority of her time with a cat named Mustang.

John Crossin

John Crossin

Undergraduate Research Assistant

John is an undergrad at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, studying Plant Biotechnology. His volunteerism in environmental restoration and passion for plants and nature intersects with his interest in medicine and human health. His research interests dive into how environmental inequities contribute to population health disparities in urban communities. By using tree-based bioindicators, we could measure pollution impacts within communities. Apart from his research interests, he plays hockey at the University of Illinois and loves the outdoors!