Faculty | Neuroscience | The Huck Institutes (en-US)

Emily Ansell

Associate Professor of Biobehavioral Health

Advancing research surrounding stress and addiction.

eba108@psu.edu

Paul Bartell

Associate Professor of Avian Biology

The regulation of biological clocks in birds at the systems level.

Roger Beaty

Assistant Professor of Psychology

The cognitive neuroscience of creative thinking and problem solving.

Elizabeth Fenton Susman Professor of Biobehavioral Health
The causes of chronic sleep deficiency in the workplace, home, and society; the health consequences of chronic sleep deficiency, especially cardiometabolic outcomes, and the physiologic and social mechanisms by which these outcomes arise. Successful…

Laura Cabrera

Huck Early Career Chair in Neuroethics; Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics

The ethical and societal implications of neurotechnologies used for treatment as well as for enhancement purposes.

lyc5332@psu.edu

Sonia Cavigelli

Chair, Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Neuroscience; Associate Professor of Biobehavioral Health

Development of temperament/personality; relationship of temperament and social status to stress and health; individual differences in stress and health in the natural environment.

Anne-Marie Chang

Assistant Professor in Biobehavioral Health

Genetic analysis of sleep and circadian rhythms, cardio-metabolic function in humans; effects of light on sleep, circadian physiology, and neurobehavioral performance.

Eric Claus

Associate Professor of Biobehavioral Health

Identifying neural and cognitive mechanisms that support behavior change in substance use disorders.

Nikki Crowley

Huck Early Career Chair in Neurobiology & Neural Engineering; Assistant Professor of Biology and Biomedical Engineering; Associate Director for Postdoctoral Training and Leadership, Center for Neural Engineering

Investigation of peptidergic transmission throughout the brain, using cell-specific and pathway-specific manipulations to understand how peptides alter neuronal signaling and behavior, particularly in the context of stress and drug use.

nzc27@psu.edu

Nancy Dennis

Associate Professor of Psychology

The cognitive and neural mechanisms that support learning and memory in young and older adults.

Michele Diaz

Associate Professor of Psychology & Linguistics

mtd143@psu.edu

Patrick Drew

Associate Director of the Neuroscience Institute; Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, of Neurosurgery, of Biology, and of Biomedical Engineering

Optical imaging of brain dynamics during sleep and behavior; Role of blood flow and cerebrospinal fluid movement in neurodegenerative disease

Chris Engeland

Associate Professor of Biobehavioral Health and Nursing

How stress, age, gender, and hormones affect inflammation / health. Biomarker feasibility for predicting health outcomes.

Nicole Etter

Assistant Professor of Health and Human Development

The relationship between tactile sensation and skilled oral behaviors (e.g. speech and swallowing) in healthy young, aging, and clinical populations.

Lisa Gatzke-Kopp

Professor of Human Development and Family Studies

Developmental neuroscience of psychopathology with a focus on aggression, hyperactivity, and substance abuse; relationship between experience, environment, and neurobiological dysfunction.

Charles Geier

Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies

Adolescent neurodevelopment and risky decision making; emergence of substance use; fMRI methods

Santhosh Girirajan

Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Associate Professor of Anthropology

Understanding the genetic basis of neurodevelopmental disorders.

Bruce Gluckman

Director of the Center for Neural Engineering; Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, of Neurosurgery, and of Biomedical Engineering

The dynamics of neural systems, how group dynamics form or emerge from the coupled dynamics of individual units, and how to measure and interact with these systems.

Thomas Gould

Jean Phillips Shibley Professor and Department Head of Biobehavioral Health

Using genetic, pharmacological, behavioral, and molecular biological techniques to study the neurobiology of learning and memory and the effects of addiction on it.

John Hayes

Professor of Food Science; Director, Sensory Evaluation Center

Perception of taste, smell and chemesthesis; eating behavior; individual differences in sensation and food preferences; COVID related anosmia

Frank Hillary

Associate Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neurology

Effects of brain injury and disease on functional brain organization; EEG and MRI-based examination of neuroplasticity in healthy and disrupted neural systems, including traumatic brain injury and multiple sclerosis.

Xiaogang Hu

Huck Chair in Neurorehabilitation; Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Kinesiology, and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation

Neural-machine interface, somatosensory feedback, neural control of biological and bionic hands, neuromuscular disorder.

Timothy Jegla

Emphasis Area Representative, Molecular and Evolutionary Genetics; Associate Professor of Biology

Functional evolution of eukaryotic ion channels and evolution of neuronal signaling and cell structure.

Dezhe Jin

Associate Professor of Physics

Computational models of neural basis of motor control and learning; theoretical analysis of biological neural networks.

Helen Kamens

Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health

Identification of genetic mechanisms that contribute to complex behaviors with a special emphasis on alcohol and tobacco use.

Reuben Kraft

Shuman Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Computational methods and high performance computing to examine brain neurotrauma biomechanics; human structural connectome analysis using physics-based predictions of biomechanical brain injury.

Janine Kwapis

Assistant Professor of Biology

Molecular and epigenetic mechanisms underlying learning and memory and age-related memory impairments.

jlk855@psu.edu

Nina Lauharatanahirun

Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health and Biomedical Engineering

Using computational modeling, behavioral economic paradigms, and functional neuroimaging (fMRI/EEG) to understand the neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying health risk behaviors across the life.

Aimin Liu

Associate Professor of Biology

Biogenesis and function of cilia in mammalian embryonic development.

Xiao Liu

Associatet Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Elizabeth Losin

Associate Professor of Biobehavioral Health; Bennett Pierce Associate Professor of Caring and Compassion in Adulthood
Bidirectional relationship between culture and the brain; for example, how cultural experiences (e.g., discrimination) and social situations (e.g., the doctor-patient relationship) influence pain perception, pain treatment, and associated brain…

erl5393@psu.edu

Bernhard Luscher

Emphasis Area Representative, Neurobiology; Director of the Center for Molecular Investigation of Neurological Disorders; Professor of Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Function of GABAergic synaptic transmission in health and disease, with emphasis of stress based psychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorders and mechanisms of antidepressant drug action

Yingwei Mao

Associate Professor of Biology
Regulation of neurogenesis using cellular and mouse models; analysis of abnormal neural progenitor cell (NPC) proliferation and its relationship to mental illnesses; identification of drugs that can reverse mouse models of psychiatric…

Jean-Michel Mongeau

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and of Biomedical Engineering

Dipanjan Pan

Huck Chair Professor in Nanomedicine; Professor of Material Science and Engineering; Professor of Nuclear Engineering

dipanjan@psu.edu

Melissa Rolls

Chair, Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences; Director of the Center for Cellular Dynamics; Paul Berg Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Subcellular compartmentalization of neurons. The cellular basis of neuronal polarity and neuronal responses to injury including degeneration and regeneration.

Robert Sainburg

Director of the Center for Movement Science and Technology; Huck Distinguished Chair in Kinesiology and Neurology; Professor of Kinesiology and of Neurology

The neural mechanisms that underlie control, coordination, and learning of voluntary movements in humans. Functional neuroanatomy of lateralized processes of motor control. Neurorehabilitation and Functional Recovery in stroke patients.

Chaleece Sandberg

Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences & Disorders

Exploring cortical reorganization related to successful therapy for acquired language disorders, and how to enhance therapy outcomes.

Grayson Sipe

Assistant Professor of Biology

Studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms that drive shifts in arousal, which are crucial for understanding maladaptive arousal in neuropsychiatric disorders such as anxiety and addiction.

gos5257@psu.edu

Karolina Skibicka

Huck Chair of Metabolic Physiology; Associate Professor of Nutritional Sciences
Utilizing rodent models to discover novel neural substrates that control fundamental homeostatic and reward controls of food intake, and their failures in the case of obesity and infection-induced anorexia; How food and feeding behavior affect neural…

kps5783@psu.edu

Moriah Szpara

Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Biology
How genetic variation influences the outcomes of viral infection, particularly for neurotropic viruses such as herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2, using high-throughput sequencing, comparative genomics, neuronal cultures, and genetic…

Nanyin Zhang

Director of the Center for Neurotechnology in Mental Health Research; Huck Chair in Brain Imaging; Professor of Bioengineering

Investigate the pathophysiology of brain disorders using neuroimaging, behavioral and optogenetic methods.

Ruobo Zhou

Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Quantitatively and functionally understanding the compartmentalization and spatiotemporal organization of protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions involved in fundamental cell functions as well as in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

rkz5110@psu.edu

Tao Zhou

Assistant Professor

The intersection of neuroengineering, electronics, materials science, and bioengineering, with the goal to improve human health

tzz5199@psu.edu