Graduate Students

Camila Alvarez

Email: camila.alvarez@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Nicholas V. DiPatrizio

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Sushmitha Arumugam

Email: sarum004@ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Ysabel Giraldo

Degree Program: Ph.D.

Research Focus

My research explores how hypergravity alters the neural circuits that control locomotion and activity rhythms in Drosophila melanogaster. By studying how the brain responds to energy-demanding conditions like increased gravity, I aim to uncover how the nervous system senses and adapts to extreme environments.

Angela Avitua

Email: angela.avitua@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Byron Ford

Degree Program: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Repair and regeneration following traumatic brain injury; Neuregulin-1

Alexander Bilas

Email: alexander.bilas@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Todd Fiacco

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Crisylle Blanton

Email: crisylle.blanton@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Kaira Carstens

Email: kaira.carstens@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Hongdian Yang

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Locus coeruleus modulation of cognitive flexibility.

Hogyu Choi

Email: hchoi117@ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Christopher Creighton

Email: christopher.creighton@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Anupama Dahanukar

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

The gustatory system of Drosophila melanogaster

Jeffrey Delgado

Email: jeffrey.delgado@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Dominic Garcia

Email: dominic.garcia003@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Ellie Hodge

Email: ellie.hodge@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Katherine Stavropoulos

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Autism, Motivation and Reward

Anjum Hussain

Email: anjum.hussain@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Carrie Jonak

Email: carrie.randle@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Devin Binder

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Identifying the cellular, molecular, and electrophysiological mechanisms that contribute to the development of posttraumatic epilepsy following traumatic brain injury.

Sarah Kabbara

Email: sarah.kabbara@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Edward Zagha

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Neural Mechanisms of Sensory Selection

Alexander King

Email: alexander.king@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Garret Anderson

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Elena Kozlova

Email: elena.kozlova@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Margarita Curras-Collazo

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Yuqi Ma

Email: yuqi.ma@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Anand Ray

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Kamryn Mattingly

Email: kmatt014@ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Aaron Seitz

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

My research involves comparing construct and format differences of inhibitory control and impulsivity assessments. I also study the functional connectivity of the locus coeruleus with higher-level brain regions using fMRI.

William Mol

Email: william.mol@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Anubhuti Goel

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Circuit basis of sensory processing and sensory processing differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Seung Moon

Email: seung.moon@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Rachel Wu

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

David Nikom

Email: david.nikom@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Sika Zheng

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

I'm interested in how RNA splicing gets dysregulated in neurodegenerative disease, focusing on the consequences of alternative RNA splicing deficits on Alzheimer's disease pathology.

Brandon L. Oliver

Email: brandon.oliver@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Natalie Zlebnik

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Reward motivated behavior

Haneal Pae

Email: haneal.pae@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Ysabel Giraldo

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

David Parker

Email: david.parker1@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Noorhan Rahmatullah

Email: noorhan.rahmatullah@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Anu Goel

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Payton Rao

Email: payton.rao@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Martin Riccomagno

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

I study the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying cortical lamination

Daniel Peixoto

Email: daniel.peixoto@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Rhiannon Rivas

Email: rhiannon.rivas@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Andrea Rocha

Email: andrea.rocha@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Courtney A. Scaramella

Email: courtney.scaramella@email.ucr.edu

Major Professors : Co-mentored by Dr. Khaleel Abdulrazak and Dr. Iryna Ethell

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Sarah Sharif

Email: sarah.sharif@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Seema Tiwari-Woodruff

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Neurodegenerative disease, visual system dysfunction

Levi-Briana Shinn

Email: levibriana.shinn@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Thomas A. Shoff

Email: thomas.shoff@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Ryan Julian

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

My work focuses on the fundamentals of protein structure, the chemistry underlying aspartic acid isomerization, the isomerization of tau in Alzheimer's disease.

Sandhya Sriram

Email: sandhya.sriram@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Todd Fiacco

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

astrocytes, astrocyte volume regulation, reactive astrocytes, epilepsy

Argishti Stepanian

Email: argishti.stepanian@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Christopher Taitano-Johnson

Email: christopher.taitanojohnson@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Viji Santhakumar

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Traumatic brain injury (TBI), Epilepsy, lncRNAs, retrotransposons

Alexandra Tejada

Email: alexandra.tejada@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Ritika Thapa

Email: ritika.thapa@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Iryna Ethell

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Fragile X Syndrome; ASD

Ashley Valdez

Email: ashley.valdez@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Djurdjica Coss

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

My research focuses on how astrocytes respond to metabolic stress and how these changes may drive brain inflammation and disease.

Victoria Wagner

Email: victoria.wagner@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Iryna Ethell

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Ian Warren

Email: ian.warren@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

JiaMin Yan

Email: jiamin.yan@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Chia Wei Yeh

Email: cyeh036@ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Octavio Zaragoza Rodriguez

Email: octavio.zaragozarodriguez@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Nicholas DiPatrizio

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

My interest lies in the effects of Δ9-THC, the primary psychoactive component of cannabis, on incretin release and its role in enhancing food reward.

Gohar Zavradyan

Email: gohar.zavradyan@email.ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Trevor E. Zimmerman-Thompson

Email: tzimm002@ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Isha Bhakta

Email: ibhak002@ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Cellular neuroscience, neurodegeneration

Luiza Rocha

Email: larau013@urc.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Learning and Memory

Jazlynn Meza

Email: jmeza056@ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Microglia and Neurodegeneration

Shireen Turner

Email: sturn032@ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Neuroimmunology and Neurodegenerative Diseases

Mina Toufani

Email: mtouf001@ucr.edu

Major Professor: Dr. Erfan Nozari

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Computational Neuroscience

Cori Zuvia

Email: czuvi001@ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Drug addiction.

Trisha Basu

Email: tbasu001@ucr.edu

Major Professor: Rotating

Degree: Ph.D.

Research Focus

Research Area

Graduate Students

Neuroscience Graduate Students

(For additional information about each, click on the card)

Camila Alvarez

Research Focus

Sushmitha Arumugam

Research Focus

Angela Avitua

Research Focus

Alexander Bilas

Research Focus

Crisylle Blanton

Research Focus

Kaira Carstens

Research Focus

Hogyu Choi

Research Focus

Christopher Creighton

Research Focus

Jeffrey Delgado

Research Focus

Dominic Garcia

Research Focus

Ellie Hodge

Research Focus

Anjum Hussain

Research Focus

Carrie Jonak

Research Focus

Sarah Kabbara

Research Focus

Alexander King

Research Focus

Elena Kozlova

Research Focus

Yuqi Ma

Research Focus

Kamryn Mattingly

Research Focus

William Mol

Research Focus

Seung Moon

Research Focus

David Nikom

Research Focus

Brandon L. Oliver

Research Focus

Haneal Pae

Research Focus

David Parker

Research Focus

Noorhan Rahmatullah

Research Focus

Payton Rao

Research Focus

Daniel Peixoto

Research Focus

Rhiannon Rivas

Research Focus

Andrea Rocha

Research Focus

Courtney A. Scaramella

Research Focus

Sarah Sharif

Research Focus

Levi-Briana Shinn

Research Focus

Thomas A. Shoff

Research Focus

Sandhya Sriram

Research Focus

Argishti Stepanian

Research Focus

Christopher Taitano-Johnson

Research Focus

Alexandra Tejada

Research Focus

Ritika Thapa

Research Focus

Ashley Valdez

COLLEGE OF NATURAL &
AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES