Faculty

Sarah Hillenbrand earned her PhD in neuroscience at UC Berkeley, using functional magnetic resonance imaging to study human motor learning. She taught courses in neuroscience, general scientific method, science writing, and storytelling at Stanford University in the Thinking Matters program. She later developed and taught courses in science communication in Stanford's Program in Writing and Rhetoric. Before coming to USF, she developed and taught courses on psychology, social justice, media...

Narayan Sankaran, PhD, is a neuroscientist and neuroethicist. As a neuroscientist, his research seeks an account of how the human auditory system enables perception of complex sounds – such as music and speech. To do this, he combines computational modeling, machine learning, and human neurophysiological measurements at different spatial scales using intracranial and scalp-based recording techniques. As a neuroethicist, his research considers the ethical and societal implications of emerging...

Combining a passion for music with scientific curiosity, Professor Viskontas works at the intersection of art and science. She has published more than 50 original papers and chapters related to the neural basis of memory and creativity. Her scientific work has been featured in Oliver Sacks’ book Musicophilia, Nautilus, Nature: Science Careers, and Discover Magazine. She has also written for MotherJones.com, American Scientist, Vitriol Magazine, and other publications. Her first book, How Music...

Maryam Bijanzadeh is an Assistant Professional Researcher at UCSF’s Neuroscape Center, where she examines how emotional behavior is encoded in the brain and body. She previously worked as a Machine Learning Scientist at iRhythm Technologies, developing ML models to detect cardiac arrhythmias.

During her postdoctoral training at UCSF, she analyzed large neurophysiological datasets from patients with intracranial electrodes, using advanced signal processing to identify brain networks underlying...

Jacqueline Lo is a neuroscientist and geroscientist. She earned her PhD at USC, where she studied cellular stress pathways and other genetic pathways that influence the biology of aging. As a graduate student, she used genetic tools in C. elegans and biochemical techniques in human cell cultures to explore how different genes and pathways affect health-span and lifespan. As a post-doctoral researcher, she combined her previous expertise with neuroscience training to investigate how the brain...