Students

There are 20 UC San Diego PhD students currently enrolled in the anthropogeny specialization:

Felix Binder Cognitive Science Felix is a second year PhD student in the cognitive science department working on cognitive tools for planning and physical reasoning. Humans use cognitive tools: tools that help think. How do such cognitive tools support humans in making efficient use of their limited cognitive capacities on hard computational problems such as planning? Felix researches the computational nature of such tools using agent-based simulations. This research—best described as computational cognitive science—aims to... more	Mika Caplan Biomedical Sciences Mika is a PhD student in the UCSD Biomedical Sciences Program in the lab of JoAnn Trejo in the Pharmacology Department. She is currently working to understand the role of the Src family kinases (SFKs) in G protein-coupled receptor signaling to the Hippo pathway as a regulator of breast cancer progression. In addition, she is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate a tumor suppressor known as ARRDC3 in the context of breast carcinoma and to elucidate the networks that... more
Julia Gorman Neurosciences Julia Gorman is a PhD student in Neurosciences at UC San Diego in both the Miller lab and Cauwenberghs lab, intersecting both neurotechnology design and experimental design. Her research focuses on the visual system and how the dynamics of prey capture in the marmoset model can elicit novel information about visual encoding in primates. Her interests in CARTA include differences in visual behavior between primates and how the visual cortex may have evolved in different species to support... more	Stefanie Holden Psychology Stefanie Holden is a Ph.D. student in Psychology at UC San Diego in Dr. Karen Dobkins’s Human Experience and Awareness Lab (HEALab). She is primarily interested in exploring the impact of conflicting social and cultural influences on how people make sense of their lives and identities via the life stories they tell. By integrating life experiences into an internalized and evolving story, individuals are able to draw connections between their past, present, and future while simultaneously... more
Juston Jaco Biomedical Sciences Juston Jaco is a second-year PhD student in the Biomedical Sciences Program who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience. His academic career began at the University of Michigan, where he graduated with Highest Honors in Environmental Science from the College of Literature, Science, & the Arts. Juston then went on to serve three years as an AmeriCorps service member where he built gardens in outdoor urban school environments, transforming vacant concrete patches into fully functioning “... more	Stephan Kaufhold Cognitive Science I am a graduate student in the Department of Cognitive Science at UCSD working in the Comparative Cognition Laboratory of Dr. Federico Rossano. A psychologist by training, I have spent the last years mainly studying the behavior and cognitive abilities of different ape species (gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, humans, bonobos, chimpanzees). My research aims at gaining insights about the ultimate and proximate origins of social cognition in humans and animals through comparative and developmental... more
Kendall Kearns Biomedical Sciences Kendall is a Ph.D. student in the Biomedical Sciences program at UCSD. She works in Bjoern Peters's lab at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology and is currently investigating the immune signatures of unconventional T cells in multiple diseases. She is using cell analysis techniques and bioinformatics to analyze the differences between T cell subsets and disease state and will also be using biochemical techniques to identify ligands of selected T cell receptors identified through computational... more	Reid Larsen Biomedical Sciences Reid is a Ph.D. student in the Biomedical Sciences program at UCSD. His research in Dr. Richard Daneman’s lab focuses on the tight regulation of substances entering and exiting the brain, controlled by the special properties of the brain’s blood vessels. This “blood-brain barrier” is critical to maintaining homeostasis and its dysfunction plays a role in the in the pathology of diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Specifically, Reid is studying the role of the sugar... more
James Michaelov Cognitive Science James Michaelov is a Ph.D student in the cognitive science graduate program at UC San Diego, working in the Language and Cognition Lab with Ben Bergen. His work combines experimental and computational methods to shed light on the neurocognitive processes underlying human language comprehension and production and how these interact with other systems.	Shubhra Murarka Anthropology Shubhra Murarka is a Ph.D student in the Department of Anthropology with specializations in Biology and Science Studies and a member of the Fox lab. She approaches questions from a biocultural lens and is deeply committed to interdisciplinary scholarship. Her research focuses on genomics, racial and social (in)equity, the impact of colonial encounters on genome diversity, Indigenous health outcomes, and bridging social theory with biological methods.
Nicholas Nelson Biological Sciences Nicholas Nelson is a UCSD Biological Sciences Ph.D. Candidate in Axel Nimmerjahn’s lab at the Salk Institute. Nicholas’s interests lie in the interface of the nervous and immune systems, and his thesis research investigates how glial cells in the spinal cord regulate nervous system homeostasis and inflammation during the development of chronic pain. More broadly, Nicholas is interested in what fueled the evolution of the human mind – what cellular and molecular actions underlie cognition in... more	Coral Pereda Serras Coral is a research-based media artist and designer originally from Spain. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Art Practice at UC San Diego. Her interdisciplinary research explores the interconnectedness between bodies and their surroundings. She is interested in the power of images to reflect the impact of culture on biological systems. Her practice relies on tools such as new media technologies, video, installation and scientific material to question the gap between science and art. Her most... more
Meghan Rossi Neurosciences Meghan Rossi is a PhD student in the UCSD Neurosciences Graduate Program. As a member of Dr. Richard Daneman's lab, Meghan is focused on examining the effects of peripheral factors, including dietary intake and exercise, on the special properties of the blood vessels in the brain termed the "blood-brain barrier." In addition, she is interested in the role of blood-brain barrier circadian rhythm on Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis, as well as the potential role of the gut microbiome in... more	Hande Sever Visual Arts Hande Sever is a transdisciplinary artist and art historian working at the intersections of ecosophy, vernacular architecture and emerging technologies. Her interest in CARTA stems from her research pertaining to archeological sites in Anatolia, such as Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe, and the impact their discovery and excavation had on artistic production both locally and globally, especially with regards to artists occupied with questions related to human origins. Her writing has been... more
Sheila Steiner Neurosciences Sheila Steiner is a 3rd year PhD student in the UCSD Neurosciences Graduate Program. She is co-advised by Dr. Rusty Gage and Dr. Carol Marchetto. She uses stem cell-derived neurons to understand how energy metabolism changes across neuronal development and neuronal aging in humans as compared to other primate species. She is broadly interested in whether there is a trade-off between both humans' unique level of cognitive functioning and humans' relative longevity compared to other primates and... more	Katie Van Alstyne Psychology Katie is a sixth-year Ph.D student in Experimental Psychology at UC San Diego and a member of Dr. Stephan Anagnostaras’s Molecular Cognition lab. Katie's primary research interests include contextual memory and exploring pharmacological therapies for psychiatric disorders. Additionally, Katie also studies cognitive performance and neuroplasticity in bottlenose dolphins. She works primarily with non-human animals (mice and dolphins), and her work includes the use of behavioral paradigms and... more
Yaohan Wu Anthropology Yaohan is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology working with Dr Jade d’Alpoim Guedes. She is a bioarchaeologist interested in employing interdisciplinary research to understand how past people from different cultures in prehistoric times utilized different foodways to adapt to the geoenvironmental stressors around them. In particular, she is interested in studying the changes in dietary intake and temporal trends in plant and animal domestications in prehistoric China. Some of Yaohan’... more	Anne Yilmaz Psychology Anne Yilmaz is a Ph.D student in experimental psychology at UC San Diego working under Dr. John Wixted in his human memory lab. Broadly, she conducts memory research with potential application to real-world problems—specifically eyewitness memory—that is grounded in basic cognitive science. She primarily uses signal detection theory to guide recognition memory experiments, then uses the findings to direct and interpret lines of eyewitness and police lineup research within other subsects of... more
James Yu Biomedical Sciences James Yu is a PhD student in the Simonson Lab at UCSD. He is interested in identifying and understanding genetic, metabolic, and physiological variation in high-altitude populations that have allowed them to adapt to low oxygen environments. He utilizes tools such as CRISPR and metabolomics to investigate potential mechanisms of adaptation. He is also interested in how archaic introgression from Denisovans may play an adaptive role in high-altitude adaptation in Tibetans. He believes... more	Matthew Zaslansky Linguistics Matthew Zaslansky is a Ph.D student in Linguistics at UC San Diego who investigates the (in)stability of redundant subsystems in languages at the individual and population levels. Language exhibits the complex coexistence of a tendency towards efficiency and economy on one hand, and variable amounts of stable redundancy (e.g. synonymy) on the other hand. Matthew’s earlier research has focused on synonymy and morphological variation in American Sign Language (ASL) and Azerbaijani. The question... more