Dissertation Defense Schedule

January 10, 2023 — 2-3 p.m., Med-Dent SW107 and Zoom
Thesis Defense: Jessica Jacobs
Mentors: Patrick Forcelli, PhD and Ludise Malkova, PhD
Title: Regulation of primate social behavior by the amygdala and BNST

January 25, 2023 — 12-1:30 p.m., Med-Dent Harvey Auditorium South and Zoom
Thesis Defense: Daniel Chapman
Mentor: Mark Burns, PhD
Title: From Neurons to Behavior: A Path Towards Brain Stimulation as a Treatment for Repetitive Head Impacts

January 31, 2023 — 11 a.m.-12 p.m., Med-Dent Harvey Auditorium South and Zoom
Thesis Defense: Shiva Hassanzadeh-Behbahani
Mentors: Ashley Van Meter, PhD and Xiong Jiang, PhD
Title: Functional and Structural Brain Imaging Evidence of Frontostriatal Alterations in HIV and Aging

February 17, 2023 — 2 p.m.- 3 p.m., Med-Dent SW107 and Zoom
Thesis Defense: W. Tyler Ketchabaw
Mentor: Peter Turkeltaub, MD, PhD
Title: Different Folks, Different Strokes: Implications of interindividual language network variability on post-stroke aphasia deficits

March 15, 2023 — 11 a.m.- 12 p.m., Med-Dent Harvey Auditorium North and Zoom
Thesis Defense: Danielle Morency
Mentor: Tingting Wang, PhD
Title: Synaptic Homeostasis: Insights From Drosophila Autism Models

February 9, 2022
Thesis Defense: Joshua McCall
Mentors: Peter Turkeltaub, MD, PhD and Rhonda Friedman, PhD,
Title: Investigating The Neurocognitive Mechanisms Of Error Monitoring In Aphasia

February 16, 2022
Thesis Defense: Joseph L. Posner
Mentors: Rhonda Friedman, PhD, and Peter Turkeltaub, MD, PhD
Title: It Sounds the Way It’s Spelled: Orthography Effect Mechanisms in Persons with Aphasia

June 3, 2022
Thesis Defense: Kelly Martin
Mentors: Elissa Newport, PhD, and Peter Turkeltaub, MD, PhD
Title: Language System Plasticity in Healthy Development and After Perinatal Stroke

June 16, 2022
Thesis Defense: Holly Korthas
Mentor: Mark Burns, PhD
Title: The Effect of Traumatic Brain Injury on Sleep and Circadian Rhythms

September 9, 2022
Thesis Defense: Andrew Speidell
Mentor: Italo Mocchetti, PhD
Title: Investigation of the Role of the P75 Neurotrophin Receptor in HIV-1 GP120-Associated Synaptic and Neural Injury

November 8, 2022
Thesis Defense: Hannah Waguespack
Mentors: Ludise Malkova, PhD and Patrick Forcelli, PhD
Title: Neural circuits of sensorimotor gating and social behavior in nonhuman primates

January 29, 2021
Thesis Defense: Jonathan Vivian Dickens
Mentor: Peter Turkeltaub, MD, PhD, and Rhonda Friedman, PhD
Title: Mapping the neurocognitive architecture of reading

February 4, 2021
Thesis Defense: Laya Rajan
Mentor: Chandan Vaidya, PhD
Title: “Multimodal Evidence for Neurocognitive Alterations in Pediatric Obesity”

Feb 19, 2021
Thesis Defense: Srikanth Damera
Mentor: Maximilian Riesenhuber, PhD
Title: INVESTIGATING THE ARCHITECTURE AND PLASTICITY OF THE AUDITORY SYSTEM THROUGH SPOKEN WORD RECOGNITION

February 26, 2021
Thesis Defense: Nahdia Jones
Mentor: G. William Rebeck, PhD
Title: The Effects of Diet Induced Obesity on CNS Function of APOE mice

April 30, 2021
Thesis Defense: Mondona McCann
Mentor: Kathleen Maguire-Zeiss, PhD
Title: Organochlorines and brain homeostasis: polychlorinated biphenyls as astrocytic stressors

July 26, 2021
Thesis Defense: Cameron McKay
Mentor: Guinevere Eden, D. Phil.
Title: Using Structural MRI to Examine the Neural Bases of Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, and ADHD in Children

July 26, 2021
Thesis Defense: Hassan Aleem
Mentor: Norberto Grzywacz, PhD
Title: The Learning and Persistence of Aesthetic Values

August 11, 2021
Thesis Defense: Alan J. Fowler
Mentor: Dr. Charbel Moussa
Title: A translational investigation of Discoidin Domain Receptor 1 inhibition as a novel therapeutics’ strategy in neurodegenerative disease

November 8, 2021 at 1:30pm
Thesis Defense: Katherine Marie Matthews (née O’Connell)
Mentor: Abigail A. Marsh, PhD
Title: From Perception to Social Connection: Assessing Deficits and Modulation of Empathic Processes to Study Human Social Behavior

November 12, 2021 at 2pm
Thesis Defense: Lauren Rosko
Mentor: Jeffrey Huang, PhD
Title: Creatine synthesis and supplementation regulates central nervous system postnatal development and injury

April 23, 2020
Thesis Defense: Stephanie Sloley
Mentors: Mark Burns, PhD, and Stefano Vicini, PhD
Title: Changes In Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity Following Exposure to High Frequency Head Impacts (HF-HI)

May 19, 2020
Thesis Defense: Kaela Singleton
Mentor: Elena Silva, PhD
Title: Characterizing Sox11 Partner Proteins And Interacting Domains In Xenopus

June 11, 2020
Thesis Defense: Kaitlyn B. Downey
Mentor: Guinevere Eden, D. Phil.
Title: Functional Neuroanatomy Of Arithmetic In Bilinguals

September 4, 2020
Thesis Defense: Adam Caccavano
Mentor: Stefano Vicini, PhD
Title: Hippocampal Microcircuit Alterations In Early Amyloid Pathology: A Preferential Disruption To Parvalbumin-Expressing Basket Cells During Sharp Wave Ripple

October 27, 2020
Thesis Defense: Kevin Cook
Mentor: Chandan Vaidya, PhD
Title: Behavioral Flexibility In Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Role of Memory And Its Neural Correlates

November 23, 2020
Thesis Defense: Shady El Damaty
Mentor: John VanMeter, PhD
Title: Adolescent Neurocognitive Maturity Mediates Paths to Altered Social Norms and Vulnerability in Emerging Adulthood

January 9, 2019 at 1:00pm
Thesis Defense: Nathanael Lee
Mentor: Dr. Jeffrey Huang and Dr. Daniel Reich (NIH)
Title: “Investigating The Spatiotemporal Evolution Of Inflammatory Demyelination”

January 17, 2019 at 12:00pm
SW 107 Medical Dental Building
Thesis Defense: Patrick Malone
Mentor: Dr. Maximilian Riesenhuber
Title: “How The Brain Learns To Understand Speech Through Touch: Neural Basis Of Acoustic-To-Vibrotactile Sensory Substitution”

May 24, 2019 at 1:00pm
NRB Auditorium
Thesis Defense: Edith Brignoni-Perez
Mentor: Dr. Guinevere Eden
Title: “Investigating The Neurofunctional Bases Of Reading In The Spanish-English Brain”

June 8, 2018 at 9:00am
at SW107 Medical Dental Building
Thesis Defense: Stephanie Davis
Mentor: Dr. Jeffrey Huang and Dr. Anton Wellstein
Title: “Immunomodulatory Effect Of Interleukin-four Induced-one (IL4I1) On Multiple Sclerosis Patient Derived Lymphocytes”

December 18, 2018 at 2:00pm
NE 401 Medical Dental Building
Thesis Defense: Chinyere Agbaegbu
Mentor: Dr. Herbert Geller (NIH) & Dr. Mark Burns
Title: “Elucidating The Role Of Plasticity-Related Gene Protein Type 3 In The CNS”