People

Catherine Hartley Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neural Science (cate <at> nyu.edu)
Cate received her B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University and her PhD in Psychology from New York University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology at Weill Cornell Medical College, joining their faculty from 2014-2016 as an Assistant Professor before returning to NYU in July 2016. When not doing science, Cate spends most of her time chasing boys.

Camille Phaneuf Lab Manager (cphaneuf <at> nyu.edu)
Camille received her B.S. in Neuroscience and the Computation Track of Cognitive Science from the University of Michigan. She is interested in the ways in which learning, memory, and decision-making strategies change across development, and aims to use fMRI and computational modeling to investigate questions related to these topics. Outside of the lab, Camille enjoys picnicking, crafting, and trying new foods!

Maximilian Scheuplein Lab Manager (maximilian.scheuplein <at> nyu.edu) [Personal website]
Maxi received his BSc in Psychology from Goethe University Frankfurt and his MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience from University College London. His dissertation work with Sarah-Jayne Blakemore focusing on self-development and mentalizing in adolescents led him to become interested in adolescence as a unique developmental period for learning and decision making. This interest brought him to MaryAnn Noonan's Lab at the University of Oxford where he investigated the neural and cognitive processes underlying decision making across development. Maxi is particularly interested in how social and emotional development interlink with learning and decision making in childhood and adolescence. Outside the lab, Maxi enjoys exploring the city, playing basketball, and hanging out at museums and coffee shops.

Alexandra Cohen Postdoctoral Fellow (ali.cohen <at> nyu.edu) [Personal website]
Ali received her B.S. in Neuroscience from Duke University and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. Her dissertation work with BJ Casey focusing on how emotion influences cognitive control across development led her to become interested in how emotional learning, memory, and underlying neural circuitry change from childhood to adulthood. She is particularly interested in how individual differences in learning emerge over the course of development and influence memory processes. Outside the lab, Ali spends most of her time engaging in science outreach and advocacy with the braiNY, NOGN, and ScAAN groups at NYU. She is also a brunch, unicorn, and plant enthusiast.

Gail Rosenbaum Postdoctoral Fellow (gailrosenbaum <at> nyu.edu)
Gail received a B.A. in Psychology from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Temple University. Her work focuses on adolescent risk taking, drawing upon perspectives and paradigms from the judgment and decision making and developmental cognitive neuroscience literatures. She is also interested in how memory and attention influence risky decision making in teens. Outside the lab, Gail enjoys singing classical music and eating pineapple.

Rebecca Martin Postdoctoral Fellow (rem265 <at> nyu.edu)
Rebecca received a B.A. in History from NYU, an M.A. in Teaching from UC Santa Cruz, an M.Ed. in Mind, Brain, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University. Her dissertation work with Kevin Ochsner examined how social influence and brain development shape emotional responses. In her postdoctoral work, Rebecca will research how emotion and novelty shape learning and memory across development. Outside of the lab, Rebecca likes to explore and exploit the best ice cream shops in the city and hypothesize how Game of Thrones is going to end.

Hillary Raab Graduate Student (hillary.raab <at> nyu.edu)
Hillary is a doctoral student in the Cognition and Perception program in the Psychology department. Her research is focused on learning processes that support psychological resilience during adolescent development. Specifically, she is interested in how control over aversive experiences may affect subsequent behaviors and the underlying neural circuitry involved. Outside of the lab, she enjoys rock-climbing and spreading her enthusiasm for science by volunteering with the Neuroscience Outreach Group at NYU.

Kate Nussenbaum Graduate Student (katenuss <at> gmail.com)
Kate received her Sc.B. from Brown University with a double-major in Cognitive Neuroscience and Science & Society. She then spent two years as a research student at the University of Oxford, where she studied the influence of long-term memory on visual attention. As a doctoral student, she aims to explore interactions between information-seeking and learning across development. Outside of the lab, Kate enjoys traveling, watching TV, and winning board games.

Perri Katzman Graduate Student (perri <at> nyu.edu)
Perri received her Sc.B. with honors in Cognitive Neuroscience at Brown University, where she researched memory with Dr. Badre. After graduating, she worked in Dr. Matthew Lieberman's lab in UCLA for two years studying social cognitive neuroscience. Perri has since returned to her hometown of New York City where she is a doctoral student in NYU's Cognition & Perception program. Her research interests include studying how reward and motivation influence learning and memory over the course of development. Outside of work, she enjoys brunch, theatre, and her cat, Smidge.

Michael Evans Graduate Student (mde269 <at> nyu.edu)
Michael received his B.A. in Psychology from James Madison University and his M.A. in Psychology from New York University. His research interests lie in understanding how learning and decision making mechanisms develop during childhood, how that development is relevant to mental health and wellbeing, and how social and environmental factors mediate that development. Outside of the lab, Michael likes to go to drag shows, play video/board games, and go on adventures with his pups!

Laura Meine Visiting Graduate Student (laura.meine <at> uni-mainz.de)
Laura is a visiting graduate student joining the Hartley lab for a 6-months research stay. She received her BSc in Psychology from the University of Hildesheim and her MSc in Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience from the free University of Berlin. As a doctoral student within the Collaborative Research Center 1193 - Neurobiology of Resilience, she is investigating the behavioral and neural correlates of stressor controllability. During her research stay, she aims to study how differences in stress history and resilience link to flexibility in learning processes. Outside the lab, Laura enjoys trying new recipes, exploring the city, and any kind of competitive card or board game.

Morgan Glover Masters Student (mmg469 <at> nyu.edu)
Morgan received her B.A. in Psychology from California State University, Sacramento and a minor in Sociology. She is currently a second-year Masters student in the Psychology program with a focus in Neuroscience and Cognition and the President of the Graduate Psychology Association (GPA). She has enjoyed working with the Hartley lab for the past year and continues to learn more from lab members every day! Morgan looks forward to applying to doctoral programs with research interests in episodic and autobiographical memory. One of her proud achievements was being a TEDx Speaker at CSUS with a talk about memory entitled Cognitive Complexity: Blind Spots.

Daphne Valencia Masters Student (dv775 <at> nyu.edu)
Daphne received her B.A. from Rutgers University with a double-major in Cognitive Science and Psychology. Currently, she is a first year student in the GSAS Masters Program in Psychology with a concentration in Cognition/Perception & Neuroscience. Daphne hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience after finishing her Masters. She is interested in developmental memory encoding, storage, and retrieval. In her free time, she enjoys playing the piano, running, exploring the city, and traveling.

Sean Maulhardt Masters Student (srm720 <at> nyu.edu)
Sean received his B.A. from California State University, Channel Islands majoring in Psychology. During that time, his research with Dr. Susan Fischer Beers investigated the interaction between controlled and automatic processing via decision-making tasks. He hopes his work as a Masters student will shape him towards a doctorate degree, where many more exciting phenomena can be discovered.

Yi (Jen) Yang Masters Student (jen.yang <at> nyu.edu)
Jen is currently a master's student in NYU's General Psychology program with a concentration in cognition and neuroscience. Her main research interests include decision-making, learning and social cognition. She is particularly interested in how social factors affect cognitive functions such as learning, memory, decision-making, emotion regulation and cognitive control, and how the influences change across development. Outside the lab, Jen enjoys cooking, exploring the city and eating yogurt.

Michael X Liu Research Assistant (michael.liu <at> nyu.edu)
Michael received his B.A. in Psychology from New York University. During this time, his research in Dr. Elizabeth Phelps' Lab aimed to understand the relationship between cognitive control and emotional memories. He is particularly interested in how decision making, emotional memory, and underlying neural circuitry change across development. In the future, he plans to attend medical school and specialize as a child psychiatrist. Outside the lab, Michael enjoys traveling, visiting museums, and eating Korean food.

Cara Zampino Research Assistant (cazampino <at> gmail.com)
Cara received her B.A. in Spanish and Portuguese from Princeton, where she researched memory and migration in literature. After graduating, she taught English on a Fulbright scholarship at the National University of Columbia. Her current research interests include how learning and memory change across development. Outside of work, she enjoys writing, biking, and traveling.

Careen Foord Undergraduate Research Assistant (cf1925 <at> nyu.edu)
Careen is currently an undergraduate research assistant studying Neural Science. She is a member of the Training Program in Computational Neuroscience and is interested in studying learning biases over the course of development. In the future, Careen plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Neurobiology and continue to research these topics. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, discovering new coffee shops, and petting dogs.

Kristen Avallone Undergraduate Research Assistant (avallk01 <at> nyu.edu)
Kristen is a junior majoring in psychology and on the pre-med track. She has past research experience in the NYU Vogel Lab where she studied the effects of cell stress on mitochondrial localized translation. Additionally, she is a member of several pre-health clubs on campus. In the future, she hopes to attend medical school in the future and become a pediatrician. In her free time, she enjoys volunteering, exploring NYC, and spending time with friends.

Michael Parola Undergraduate Research Assistant (mp4979 <at> nyu.edu)
Michael is currently an undergraduate research assistant studying Economics and Politics. He is interested in how developmental changes in behavior affect economic decision making. After graduation, Michael plans on pursuing his Master’s degree in Politics. Outside of class, he enjoys watching movies and exploring New York.

Yixin Gu Undergraduate Research Assistant (yg1482 <at> nyu.edu)
Yixin is a junior joint-majoring in Mathematics and Computer Science. She is interested in data analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence and passionate about exploring the potential applications of neuroscience to AI. Outside the lab, Yixin enjoys watching Korean TV shows and exploring NYC.

Meral Abdel Shafy Undergraduate Research Assistant (mas1851 <at> nyu.edu)
Meral is a sophomore studying psychology and is on the pre-med track. She hopes to attend medical school in the future, and to bring her psychology degree to expand on the current practices in medicine. Through her many years of working with children in classroom settings, she became interested in studying emotions and decision making across all ages of development. In her free time, she enjoys martial arts, studying in coffee shops, and long park walks with friends.

Ali Libertella Undergraduate Research Assistant (al5292 <at> nyu.edu)
Ali is a junior majoring in Philosophy and Psychology. She was inspired by her Cognitive Neuroscience course to join the lab. She is interested in how the brain values options in decisions involving self control. Outside of class, she likes to read, study Italian, and see live music.

Faya Movchan Undergraduate Research Assistant (fm1475 <at> nyu.edu)
Faya is a junior double majoring in Psychology and Neuroscience. She is interested in pursuing a career in Neuroscience research with a focus on connection between Neuroscience and AI, as well as the application of virtual reality to early diagnostics of neural diseases. Outside of class, Faya likes spending time with her friends, attending rock music concerts, musicals, operas and watching movies.