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Personnel: Welcome

Current members

Personnel: Text
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Kevin C. Chan, PhD, FARVO (2023, 2024)

Director, NeuroImaging and Visual Science Laboratory

Associate Professor of Ophthalmology

Spencer Center for Vision Research

Byers Eye Institute

Department of Ophthalmology

Stanford University School of Medicine

Personnel: Our Team

Research Scientists & Postdoctoral Fellows

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Thajunnisa A. Sajitha, MVSc

2021 - Present

Research interests: Glaucoma, Neuropathology, Neuroimaging, CSF dynamics, and Alzheimer's

Awards: 2023 ISMRM educational stipend award

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Muneeb A. Faiq, PhD

2018 - Present

Research interests: Glaucoma; Diabetes; Visual Neuroscience; Behavioral Neuropsychiatry

Awards: 2021-23 ISMRM educational stipend award;

2021 ISMRM Imaging Neurofluids Best Abstract Award (2nd Place)

2021 ISMRM Summa Cum Laude Award for top 5% abstracts

2021 ARVO Foundation Travel Grant

2019 ARVO MIT Poster Award Finalist

2019 Alliance for Eye and Vision Research Emerging Vision Scientist

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Giles Hamilton-Fletcher, PhD

2018 - Present

Research interests: Sensory substitution, Cross-modal correspondences; Qualia; Synaesthesia

Award: 2021 Invited speaker at re:MAKING SENSE (video)

2018 Alliance for Eye and Vision Research Emerging Vision Scientist

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Ji Won Bang, PhD

2017 - Present

Research interests: Plasticity; Visual learning; Decision-making

Awards: 2025 ISER/BrightFocus Glaucoma Symposium Travel Award

2021 BrightFocus Foundation National Glaucoma Research Postdoctoral Fellowship (video)

2021 ARVO Hot Topic recognition for top 2% abstracts (ARVO Press Release)

2021 Alliance for Eye and Vision Research Emerging Vision Scientist

2020 ISMRM Summa Cum Laude Award for top 5% abstracts

2019 ARVO Foundation/National Eye Institute Travel Grant

Personnel: Our Team

Graduate Students
 
2025 – Present
Justin Veerasami, BS (Master’s student in Biomedical Informatics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine) (Award: 2025 ISMRM Workshop on Metabolomics and Metabolomic Imaging Trainee Stipend Award) 
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2024 – Present
Raphael Fabre, BA (Master’s student in Biotechnology & Entrepreneurship, NYU Tandon School of Engineering)​
 

Personnel: Text

Residents and Medical Students
 
2024 – Present
Harshini Raman, BS (Visiting student at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA)

2024 – Present; 2018 – 2022 (high school student/undergraduate)
Anisha Kasi, BS 

2024 – Present; 2018 – 2022 (high school student/undergraduate)
Patrick Paszkowski, BS

Personnel: Text

Undergraduate and Postbaccalaureate Students
 
2025 – Present
Shannon Fung (BS in Biomedical Engineering)
 
2024 – Present
Jamila Abouelenin (BA in Cognitive Neuroscience)

Personnel: Text

High School Students 

2025 – Present
Susan Tseng (Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, NC)

Personnel: Text

Past members

Postdoctoral Fellows
 

2020 – 2022

Russell W. Chan, PhD (Last known position: Chief Executive Officer at E-SENSE Innovation & Technology, Hong Kong) (Awards: 2021 ARVO Foundation Murray and Jeanie Johnstone Award for best glaucoma research; 2021 ARVO Hot Topic recognition for top 2% abstract )

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2017 – 2022

Carlos Parra, PhD (Last known position: Research Scientist at NYU Langone Health) (Awards: 2022 The Glaucoma Foundation (sponsored by Patricia Hill) / Research to Prevent Blindness Fellowship in Glaucoma; 2022 Alliance for Eye and Vision Research Emerging Vision Scientist)

 

2019 – 2020
Anoop Sainulabdeen, MVSc, PhD (Last known position: Associate Professor of Surgery and Radiology, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University )


2018 – 2019
Helen Xinlei Wang, MD, PhD (Last known position: Medical entrepreneur in China)


2014 – 2016

Xiaoling Yang, MD (Last known position: Spectroscopist at University of Pittsburgh; Award: 2015 ARVO Hot Topic recognition for top 6% abstracts)


2013 – 2016

Matthew C. Murphy, PhD (Last known position: Associate Professor of Radiology, Mayo Clinic) (Awards: 2014-16 NIH T32EY017271-06 grantee; 2014 ISMRM educational stipend award; 2014 ISMRM Magna Cum Laude Award for top 15% abstract)


2011 – 2012

Ian P. Conner, MD, PhD (Last known position: Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, 2012-present)

Personnel: Text

Graduate Students
 

2023 – 2025

Hyun Seo (Hannah) Lee, BA (Master’s student in Psychology, NYU College of Arts and Science)

 

2023 – 2024

Aradhita Bhandari, BS, Aryan Jain, BS, Mallory Sico, BS, and Gail Batutis, BS (Master’s students, NYU Center for Data Science MS Capstone Project: User-centric AI models for assisting the blind)(Awards: 2023 Best Student Voted Posters Award; 2024 NYU MSDS Capstone Travel Fund Award; 2024 CDS Summer Research Award)

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2023 – 2024

Sahil Faizal, BTech (Master’s student in Computer Science and Engineering, NYU Tandon School of Engineering)

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2023
Raksha Gururaj, BEng (Master’s student in Biomedical Engineering, NYU Tandon School of Engineering; BE-GY 871X Guided Studies)

2022 – 2023
Laura Massi, MSc (Award: 2023 ARVO Press Release; 2023 ARVO Eye Research Center Travel Grant)(Joint/visiting graduate student at Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy)

2022 – 2023
Lev Paciorkowski, BS (Master’s student, Center for Data Science, NYU College of Arts & Science)

2022 – 2023
Khevna Parikh, BS (Master’s student, Center for Data Science, NYU College of Arts & Science)

2022 – 2023
Tharangini Sankarnarayanan, BTech  (Master’s student, Center for Data Science, NYU College of Arts & Science)(Award: 2023 NYU MSDS Capstone Travel Fund Award)
 

2021 – 2023

Dean Sheng, BEng (Graduate Assistant, NYU Tandon School of Engineering)


2019 – 2021
Jessie J. Zhu, MD, PhD (Joint graduate student at Capital Medical University, Beijing, China) (Awards: 2021 ARVO International Travel Grant; 2019 Chinese Government Scholarship for Joint Doctoral Training Program at NYULH Ophthalmology)

2019 – 2020
Anna M. Chen, BS (Vilcek Institute graduate student)(Award: 2020 ISMRM New Entrant Stipend award)
 
2019 – 2020
Zhe Sun, MS, MD (Vilcek Institute graduate student)
 
2019 – 2020
Yash Deshpande, BS (Master’s student in Data Science, NYU College of Arts & Science)
 
2019 – 2020
Philip Ekfeldt, BS (Award: NYU Center for Data Science/Moore-Sloan Summer Research Internship; Master’s student in Data Science, NYU College of Arts & Science)
 
2017 – 2019
Monica Mendoza, MS (Master’s student in Biomedical engineering, NYU Tandon School of Engineering)
 
2014 – 2018
Yolandi van der Merwe, PhD (Last known position: Senior Manager, Oncology Customer & Market Insights, Bristol Myers Squibb, USA); (Awards: 2016 ARVO Hot Topic recognition for top 2% abstracts; 2015-17 ISMRM educational stipend award; 2015&2017 ISMRM Summa Cum Laude Award for top 5% abstract; 2015&2016 ISMRM Magna Cum Laude Award for top 15% abstract)
 
2014 – 2017
Caitlin O’ Connell, PhD (Last known position: Postdoctoral fellow at East Carolina University, USA); (Co-advisor/PhD thesis committee member)

2013 – 2015
Leon C. Ho, PhD (Last known position: Resident Physicist, Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital, Hong Kong); (Awards: 2014 & 2015 ISMRM educational stipend awards; 2014 ISMRM Magna Cum Laude Awards (x2) for top 15% abstracts)

Personnel: Text

Residents and Medical Students

2022 – 2025
Robert James, BS (also Biomedical Informatics MS student, NYU Grossman School of Medicine)

2022 – 2024
Kevin Yu, BS (Visiting student at NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine, Old Westbury, NY)(2024 Knights Templar Eye Foundation Travel Grant) 

2021 – 2022
Zain Khera, BA (Award: 2022 ARVO Knights Templar Eye Foundation Travel Grant)

2018 – 2022
Vishnu Adi, MPH, DO (Award: 2021 ISER/BrightFocus Glaucoma Symposium Travel Award; 2021 ARVO Foundation/Knights Templar Eye Foundation Travel Grant; Visiting student at NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine, Old Westbury, NY)(Last known position: Ophthalmology resident, University of South Florida, 2022-present) 

2017 – 2021
Jeffrey R. Sims, MD (Full-time research associate, 2019-2020; Awards: 2020 Vision Eye to Brain Research Retreat - 1st Place Poster; 2017 Liesegang Fellowship for clinical ophthalmology research)(Last known position: Ophthalmology resident, New York University Langone Health, 2021-present)

2017 – 2021
Max K. Colbert, BS (Awards: 2019 ARVO Foundation/BrightFocus Foundation Travel Grant; 2018 Liesegang fellowship for clinical ophthalmology research) (Last known position: Ophthalmology resident, New York University Langone Health, 2022-present)

2017 – 2021
Wenyu Deng, BA (Full-time postbaccalaureate researcher, 2017-18) (Last known position: Medical student, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, 2018 - present)

2020
Nicole A. Colwell, MD

2018 – 2019
Malack Hamade, BS (Visiting Student at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY) 
 
2017 – 2019
Ahmel Arshad, BS (Visiting student at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, Middletown, NY)
 
2012 – 2016
Cindy Y. Teng, BA [Awards: NIH T32MH019986 training grantee; 2015 ARVO National Eye Institute award; 2015 ARVO Hot Topic recognition for top 6% abstracts; 2013 Stephen Phillips Award for Basic Science at Dean's Summer Research Program (2/100+ applicants)]

2012 – 2016 
Jesse Lawrence, BS [Awards: 2014 ARVO Foundation Murray and Jeanie Johnstone Award for best glaucoma research; 2013 Dean’s Research Fellowship; Merit Award at Dean's Summer Research Program (11/100+ applicants)]
 
2011 – 2016
Swarupa Kancherla, MD (Award: 2015 ISMRM educational stipend award) (Last known position: Ophthalmologist, Columbus Ophthalmology Associates, Dublin, OH, 2023-present))

Personnel: Text

Undergraduate and Postbaccalaureate Students

2022 – 2025
Ruijie Sun (Computer Science and Data Science, NYU College of Arts and Science)

2023 – 2024
Christine Pang  (Biology student, NYU College of Arts and Science)(2023 ISMRM educational stipend award)

2023 – 2024
David Bulanov, BA (Post-baccalaureate research associate, Hunter College)

​2023 – 2024
Staphany Park, BS, MBA

2022 – 2024
Koji Mingxin Liu (NYU BSc in Computer Science and Data Science)

2022 – 2024
Krish Devarakonda (Neural Science pre-med student, NYU College of Arts and Science)

2022 – 2023
Shreya Gundelly (Neural Science pre-med student, NYU College of Arts and Science)

2020 – 2023
Dominick Forlenza (Visiting student at Quinnipiac University, CT, USA)

2022 – 2023
Jeremy Li (Award: 2023 ARVO travel grant award; 2022 NYU Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Grant; Biology student, NYU College of Arts and Science)

2021 – 2023
Ryan Xue (Awards: 1st runner-up in basic science research at The 13th Li Ka-Shing Foundation (LKSF) International Ophthalmic Research Student Forum, The Joint Shantou International Eye Center (JSIEC) of Shantou University and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Dec 28, 2024; Fall 2021 Sigma Xi Grants in Aid of Research (GIAR) program; 2021 Joseph Jerome Research Scholar; 2021 NYU Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Grant; Pre-med track Neural Science student, NYU College of Arts and Science)

2021 – 2023
Emily Tse (Pre-med track BA Biology student, NYU College of Arts and Science)

2018 – 2023
Jeannie Au (Pre-med track BA Biology and Journalism Double Major and Chemistry Minor student, NYU College of Arts and Science)
 
2018 – 2022​
Crystal Liu, BS (Award: 2019 Carnegie Mellon University Summer Internship Experience Fund)(Last known position: Student at SUNY College of Optometry)

2021 – 2022
Royce Lee, BSc (Full-time research associate 2021-22)(Last known position: Medical student at Johns Hopkins University)

2020 – 2022
Sarah Wu (Awards: 2020 Count Lorenzo Attolico di Adelfia Research Scholar; 2020 NYU Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Grant; Pre-med track BA Biology student, NYU College of Arts and Science)(Last known position: Student at SUNY College of Optometry, 2022-present)

2020 – 2021​
Maggie Y. Yan (Pre-health track BA student in Psychology, NYU College of Arts and Science)

2020 – 2021
Sophia Khoja (Award: 2020 NYU Wasserman Center Internship Grant; Senior research thesis project; Pre-health track BSc student in Biomolecular Science, NYU Tandon School of Engineering) 

2020 – 2021
Eva Yarsky (Visiting student at The College of New Jersey/New Jersey Medical School, NJ, USA) 

2020 – 2021
Max Shotbolt (Junior, Applied Physics, NYU Tandon School of Engineering)

2020
Krystal Akers, BS  (PostBaccalaureate Pre-Medical student, NYU College of Arts and Science)

2019 – 2020
Huy N. Pham (Visiting student at Williams College, Williamstown, MA, USA)

2019
Hana Song (Award: 2019 Carnegie Mellon University Summer Internship Experience Fund)
 
2017 – 2020
Vivek Trivedi (Awards: 2019 ISMRM Magna Cum Laude Award for top 15% abstracts; Award: 2018 ARVO Foundation/Knights Templar Eye Foundation Travel Grant)

2017
Antoinette Charles (2017 ABRCMS Student Travel Award; Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP), Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, NYU School of Medicine)(Last known position: medical student at Duke University School of Medicine)
 
2017
Yue Chen (Visiting student at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China)
 
2016
William Kohler (Student researcher at Saint Vincent College, PA)
 
2016
John Gnalian (BioSc 1903 Undergraduate Research on Biological Sciences)
 
2016
Michael Krawchuk (Last known position: Postbaccalaureate at Johns Hopkins University; NroSci 1901 Independent Study on Neuroscience Research; ARTSC 0120 First Experiences in Research project)
 
2016
Katrina Tragakis (ArtSc 0120 First Experiences in Research project)
 
2014 – 2015
Jennifer Liu (BioSc 1903 Undergraduate Research on Biological Sciences)(Last known position: Resident Physician at US Department of Veterans Affairs New Jersey Healthcare System, 2022-present)
 
2013 – 2014
Tyler Pirkle (BioEng 1002 Intramural Bioengineering Internship) (Award: 2013 Pitt BioE/Provost summer internship)
 
2012 – 2014
Zaid Safiullah (Honors Thesis, and BioENG 1095 Special Bioengineering Research Projects) (Last known position: Resident, Johns Hopkins University, 2020-present) [Awards: 2014 ARVO Foundation/National Eye Institute Travel Grant; 2013 Brackenridge Fellowship (60/200+ applicants)]

Personnel: Text

High School Students
 
2022 –2024
Deep Ghosh (St. Paul’s School, Concord, NH)

2021 – 2023
Sriram Bhimaraju (The Harker School, San Jose, CA) 

2018 – 2022
Anisha Kasi (Last known position: Undergraduate at Brown University)

2018 – 2022
Patrick Paszkowski (Last known position: Undergraduate at Yale University) 

2019 – 2020
Elizabeth Vesialou (Last known position: Undergraduate at Georgetown University)
 
2019 – 2020
Devon J. Bonair (Last known position: Undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University)
 
2018 – 2019
Andrew Lee (Last known position: PhD student at UCLA; Undergraduate at Williams College)

2014 – 2015
Grace Jin (Last known position: Undergraduate at Yale University)

Personnel: Text

BMSC-GA 4482 Introduction to Research (Research Adventure), Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, NYU Langone Health, New York University

2019

Nora Herzog, Zhe Sun, Qiao Zhang


2018

Jonathan Feelemyer, Sheena Faye Garcia, Paige Leary, Patrick O’Neill, Nicholas Pantaleo, Amicha Robertson


Summer Trainees, Multimodal Neuroimaging Training Program, University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University (NIH R90DA023420 and T90DA022761)

2013

Andreas Hahn, PhD (Medical University of Vienna), Karen Nunley, BSc (University of Pittsburgh), Sephira Ryman, BSc (University of New Mexico), Indira Turney, BSc (Pennsylvania State University)

2012

Kaitlyn Litkofsky, BSc (Penn State University), Toshiki Tazoe, PhD (University of Pittsburgh)

Personnel: Text


​Supported in part by

  • US National Institutes of Health (R01EY028125, R01EY034897) 

  • US Department of Defense Vision Research Program (W81XWH2110615)

  • BrightFocus Foundation National Glaucoma Research Program (G2013077, G2016030, G2019103, G2021001F) 

  • Shaffer Grants for Innovative Glaucoma Research/Glaucoma Research Foundation

  • Alcon Research Institute Young Investigator Grant

  • ARVO Foundation for Eye Research

  • Feldstein Medical Foundation Research Grant

  • Research to Prevent Blindness/Stavros Niarchos Foundation International Research Collaborators Award

  • The Glaucoma Foundation/Research to Prevent Blindness Glaucoma Fellowship

  • Sigma Xi Grant in Aid of Research Program
     

©2025 by NeuroImaging and Visual Science Laboratory

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