Principle Investigator

Herbert is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. After receiving a Ph.D in Neurobiology from Harvard University, he did his postdoctoral work at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University. He was a Junior Fellow at the Simons Society of Fellows and an inaugural ISFS Fellow. Herbert enjoys running, hiking, literature, and a good laugh.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Yuan is a Seaver Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow. In his doctoral work, he studied the sensory dysfunctions in aging and autism spectrum disorder. His future work centers on the neural basis of higher cognitive functions that are impacted by autism and other brain disorders. Outside of the lab, Yuan enjoys spending time with his family.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Myungji is a Postdoctoral Fellow. In her doctoral work, she studied the neural mechanisms of value-based decision-making using a rodent gambling task. She is interested in understanding how the brain guides complex behavior across different contexts and aims to extend this passion into social decision-making during her postdoctoral study. Myungji loves walking, traveling, learning gymnastics, and freshly brewed coffee.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Jie is a Postdoctoral Fellow. In her doctoral work, she studied the transgenerational inheritance of sweet taste perception in fruit flies. She is very interested in the plasticity of social behaviour, especially in the dynamic regulation of neurons by epigenetic mechanisms. Outside of the lab, Jie loves cooking, hiking, gardening, and adorable animals.

Associate Researcher

Runqi is an Associate Resercher in the Department of Neuroscience at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She studied Neroscience and Computer Science at Vassar College and worked in a lab that studied fear generalization. Outside of the lab, Runqi likes listening to and playing music. She also loves to watch movies and anime.

Volunteer

Jasmine is a research volunteer working jointly between the Wu and Schaffer labs. Her undergraduate degree was in Cognitive Science with a specialization in Machine Learning, and she is interested in distributed cognition and emergent social dynamics within groups. In her free time, she likes to play violin and video games.

Undergraduate Volunteer

Alvi is an Undergraduate Research Volunteer in the Department of Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He currently attends Baruch College, where he is majoring in biology and minoring in mathematics. In the future, Alvi aspires to become a physician-scientist, specializing in either psychiatry or neurology. Outside of the lab, Alvi enjoys reading, hiking, and watching movies.

Undergraduate Volunteer

Emma is an Undergraduate Research Volunteer in the Department of Neuroscience. She attends Barnard College where she is majoring in Neuroscience & Behavior. Emma is especially interested in the neural basis of decision-making and collaboration. Outside of the lab, Emma works for the college radio station and designs sets for campus theater.

Chief Entertainment Officer

Amy is a neuroscientist who shared a Nobel Prize in Physics with Dr. Sheldon Cooper for their work on super asymmetry, whatever that is. She is a master of the reinforcement theory and has an extraordinary ability to manipulate Dr. Cooper through rewards. Growing up with no friends, Amy enjoys sarcasm and solving puzzles. As her mother used to say: “when you’re doing a puzzle, it’s like having a thousand friends.”

Lab Spirit

Cajal was a Spanish neuroscientist, pathologist, and histologist. Widely considered as the father of modern neuroscience, he provided fundamental insights into the structure of the nervous system. Some of his drawings of neurons are still unparalleled till today. Cajal has some advice for a young investigator. But do not trust everything he said.