Jens studied psychology at the University of Tübingen (Germany) and got his PhD in neuropsychology from Heidelberg University (Germany). His PhD study involved finding out how phantom limbs work in the brain, and how effects of phantom limb pain therapy can be measured using neuroimaging. This work later received the highest-ranking German pain research award. He is currently located at Florida State University, where he studies the components of psychopathy and other topics related to brain and behavior. He is passionate about sharing science with a wide audience and he co-founded Real Scientists DE, the German-language variant of the popular Real Scientists Twitter account, which makes the work and lives of scientists accessible to a large online audience.

Nirosha J. Murugan is a postdoctoral fellow at the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University. Working in the Michael Levin Lab her research focuses on the correlates of learning and memory in a non-neural biological system which shares fundamental features with neural tissue: Physarum polycephalum. Her goal is to uncover the intricacies involved with primitive cognition and apply those concepts to biosynthetic artificial intelligence systems. Previously, Nirosha studied Behavioural Neuroscience at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Canada where she investigated the effects of patterned electromagnetic fields and low-level light on human memory and mood states using electroencephalographic profiles.

Cari recently completed her Master of Science from Bowling Green State University. As she figures out exactly what she wants to do next, she is currently an intern with Planting Science, a community leader with The Junior Academy, a classroom coordinator with Letters to a Pre-Scientist, and a fellow with a local elementary school! All while being a mentor for both Planting Science and The Junior Academy and participating in every outreach event that comes across her desk. She currently hosts a podcast at bugsandstuffpod.wordpress.com/.

Tamsin Irwin is a Neuroscience Graduate from Cardiff University. Tamsin recently spent a year at the University of Malta researching the effects of a Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion on the brain and has always had an interest in the functioning of the brain. Since completing her degree Tamsin wants to further her career into the study of Epilepsy and her next step is to undertake a Masters in Neurophysiology.

Amin is a PhD student in the lab of Steven Prescott at the University of Toronto, using electrophysiological recordings in spinal cord slices to decipher how different cell types interact to control circuit function. He is also interested in analyzing the neural coding mechanisms in the brain. Beyond his contribution to provide scientific content for the lay audience, Amin is actively involved in the organization of outreach activities, aiming to make a stronger bond between science and society.

Chris Frith is emeritus professor of neuropsychology at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London. He is interested in the relationship between the mind and the brain, and studies belief, will and social interactions. His latest book is The Cognitive Neuropsychology of Schizophrenia (2015).

Ellen Wann is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. Previously, Ellen studied neuroscience at St. Olaf College and the University of Pennsylvania. She currently researches spatial and temporal neuronal activity changes after ischemic stroke to assess the efficacy of stroke intervention treatments. Ellen is interested in promoting scientific evidence-based policies by bringing together scientists and community leaders. In her spare time, Ellen enjoys exercising outdoors and playing with her puppy at the dog beach.

Jacob is an incoming freshman who intends to major in biology. He participated in the 2016 USA National Brain Bee, and while there he co-founded the International Youth Neuroscience Association (IYNA), a global network of high school students with a passion for the study of neuroscience. He currently serves as the Chairman of the IYNA's Board of Directors, and sees this role as an opportunity to share his love of neuroscience with students around the world through projects such as the MYELIN (Modern Youth Education, Leadership, and Inquiry in Neuroscience) Initiative. Jacob also has an immense interest in biology research, and has been able to indulge this through summer internships at the Salk Institute and UCI. He aspires to eventually obtain an M.D.

Amy is a Science Communication MSc student from Imperial College London and holds an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience. She hopes to communicate science through different mediums to spark interest in science and social topics. As well as writing, creating radio pieces and short films are areas of particular interest. Amy is also a musician and likes to compose music to complement her work.

Lining earned her Ph.D. from Clemson University, where she studied natural killer cell-based immunotherapy. She also established a mouse model recapitulating Kaposi’s sarcoma while working at the University of Southern California. Her current research at the City of Hope focuses on developing ultra-sensitive biosensors for detecting botulinum toxins. Outside the lab, she serves as the VP of Communications at the Association for Women in Science Los Angeles/Ventura County chapter. She is obsessed with giving speeches at Toastmasters and loves to explore nature in the National Parks.

Daniel Toker is a neuroscience PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in computational and cognitive neuroscience. In his research, he uses information theory and graph theory to characterize what the brain is doing when it's conscious, and what changes when it's not. Before coming to Berkeley, Daniel studied philosophy and neuroscience at Princeton University. His other science writing can be found on the following social media platforms: Instagram: @the_brain_scientist, Twitter: @daniel_toker, Website: danieltoker.com.

Keith Frankish is a philosopher and writer, currently living in Crete, Greece. He is a Visiting Research Fellow with The Open University, UK (where he was formerly a Senior Lecturer) and an Adjunct Professor with the Brain and Mind Programme at the University of Crete. He works mainly in philosophy of psychology and philosophy of mind, though he has interests in many other areas of philosophy.

Jessica Y. Chen is a PhD candidate in neuroscience at the University of Michigan, with a BS in biomedical engineering from the University of Southern California. Her main research interests are in stem cells and regeneration of the central nervous system, and her thesis work is on designing implantable biomaterial scaffolds to support and enhance regeneration following a spinal cord injury. Aside from her interests in the lab, she is an avid science communicator with a long history of involvement in STEM education of children and adults of all ages. You can learn more about her work through her LinkedIn or Twitter.

Leslee Lazar is interested in the intersection of neuroscience and design. Having completed his PhD in Neuroscience from National Brain Research Centre (India) and post-doctoral research from Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA), he moved back to India and worked as a freelance visual science communicator. He uses illustrations, graphic design, infographics, collages and photography to communicate complex scientific concepts. His portfolio is at lesleelazar.com. To know more, you can read his interview in eLife journal. Currently he is a visiting faculty at Indian Institute of Technology (Gandhinagar). He aims is to bring behavioural changes for social good using cognitive science, neuroscience and design thinking.

Rachel received her B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience from Lehigh University, with a minor in Psychology. She then worked as a research assistant for two years at Rutgers University, studying impulse control disorders in patients with Parkinson’s disease. She is now a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at UCLA, where she studies brain-behavior relationships in individuals with an ultra-high genetic risk for developing psychiatric disorders. She uses behavioral, neuroimaging, and genetics techniques to investigate how underlying endophenotypes may underscore the development of psychiatric illnesses.

Shuhan He is the founder of MazeEngineers. He is a resident physician at the Harvard Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women's and Massachusetts Hospital, and graduated with his MD from the Keck School of Medicine. He currently works with researchers across the world to develop better objective preclinical testing. His dream is that good, mass behavior investigations can help bring new therapies to the bedside. He can be found on twitter at @ShuhanHeMD.

Caitlin Aamodt is a Ph.D. Candidate in Neuroscience at UCLA, where she is developing a novel neuroepigenetic therapeutic to treat learned vocal communication deficits using the zebra finch model system in the lab of Stephanie White. Her research interests broadly include behavioral epigenetics, cognitive evolution, and neuropharmacology. In addition to Knowing Neurons her science writing has appeared on the blogs Speaking of Research and What is Epigenetics? In her spare time Caitlin enjoys electronic music, growing plants, practicing yoga, and writing science fiction. She can be found online at caitlinaamodt.wordpress.com.

Megumi attends high school in the UK and will be studying neuroscience at university from Fall 2017. Since representing England at the International Brain Bee World Championship in 2016, she became aware of the lack of access to neuroscience resources for high school students and has been advocating for neuroscience education through her roles as the Director of the Synapse Project and as a Board Member of the International Youth Neuroscience Association. Megumi is working together with students from around the world to design a neuroscience curriculum, the Modern Youth Education, Leadership, and Inquiry in Neuroscience (MYELIN) Initiative, for high school classrooms. She also works as a voluntary researcher at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, University of London, and collects data from children with autism spectrum disorder. She is particularly intrigued by computational approaches to cognition and behavior.

Eric is a 3rd year graduate student studying epigenetics of memory and drug abuse. Before graduate school he served in the army for 8 years. His favorite food is ramen, his least favorite food is omelettes, and he thinks Chris Farley was the best actor to come out of Saturday Night Live.

Philip Geoff is associate professor in philosophy at Central European University in Budapest (a unique and wonderful institution). His main research interest is consciousness, although he also has a sideline in political philosophy (taxation, globalisation, social justice). Having recently finished his first book Consciousness and Fundamental Reality (published with Oxford University Press June 2017), he is currently working on a book on consciousness aimed at a general audience. He has written for the Guardian and Philosophy Now and blogs at www.conscienceandconsciousness.com.

Jennifer Tribble graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2013 with a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.S. in Microbiology.  She first discovered her love of neuroscience research as an undergraduate, and is now working toward her PhD at UCLA in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Fanselow.  Jennifer’s interests lie primarily in behavioral neuroscience, and specifically mapping cellular changes to holistic behavioral phenotypes.  In the Fanselow lab, she studies fear behavior and Pavlovian conditioning to understand the neural mechanisms of fear acquisition and extinction.

Cari is currently studying towards my MSc in ecology at Bowling Green State University. Her research is looking at how available soil nutrients can change the invertebrate community (e.g. millipedes, isopods, etc.) and how actively they participate in decomposition activity. She is especially interested in science communication in the form of writing, art, videos, and podcasts. She writes about my research and other science topics on her blog Ritzen Research. 

Teodora Stoica has worked in neuroscience and psychology research for over five years, contributing to the scientific understanding of the brain at Yale University and University of Maryland, Baltimore.  She hosts her own writing at www.curiouscortex.com and is a Science Expert on Scinote.org.  She is thrilled to begin graduate school at the University of Louisville in Translational Neuroscience in the fall of 2015.  In her future research, she will investigate the neural correlates of emotion through a multidisciplinary approach and how emotions impact thought and behavior.

Darren qualified from Trinity College Dublin with a degree in Medicine and shortly after obtained his memberships in Psychiatry from the Royal College of Psychiatry. After completing an MSc in Neuroscience in Kings College London (with distinction) he returned to clinical/basic science research. He is currently back in Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience investigating how early life events modify the neurobiology of the stress systems. His particular focus is in the neuroimaging changes that occur in with the onset of depression and stress.

Ignacio graduated in Biochemistry and holds a PhD in Molecular Biology. He is passionate about mitochondria and has studied their role in neurons in health and disease. He writes about Science & Technology for The Canary and is a regular contributor of science blogs such as Mapping Ignorance. He can be followed in Twitter and currently lives in the city of São Paulo, in Brazil.

Sofia graduated from Oxford University with a BA in Experimental Psychology, before staying on to receive an MSc in Neuroscience.  During her master’s degree, she conducted human EEG research, as well as studied early-postnatal brain development in a mouse model of schizophrenia using in vitro electrophysiology.  Currently, Sofia is pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience at Oxford, using in vivo electrophysiology with the goal of shedding some light on the principles underlying information coding in the sensory cortex.  In her spare time, she writes accessible articles on various topics in neuroscience on her blog ‘The Neurosphere‘.

Jeremy graduated with honors from Indiana University – Bloomington with a BA in biological anthropology and a minor in medical science.  Following graduation, Jeremy worked as the assistant project director for the Semliki Chimpanzee Project at the Semliki-Toro wildlife reserve in western Uganda.  Jeremy is currently completing his PhD in neuroscience at The Ohio State University.  His research focuses on how cancer and the agents used to treat it (namely, cytotoxic chemotherapeutics) alter sleep and circadian rhythms.  Broadly, his interests include circadian rhythms, sleep, neuroimmunology, and evolution.  Since starting his graduate study in 2012, Jeremy has published six peer reviewed papers and was awarded the OSU Presidental Fellowship and the Pelotonia Graduate Fellowship.  Additionally, Jeremy was selected as a Society for Neuroscience Advocacy Ambassador and received a travel award to present his research at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington DC.  In his spare time, he enjoys writing, playing piano, scuba diving, and cooking.

Colin graduated from Texas State University San Marcos with a B.A. in Psychology where he wrote his honors thesis on a proposed experimental method for measuring  human hippocampal neurogenesis.  He then moved to Houston to work as a middle and high school science teacher in low income schools, and later as a curriculum developer for STEMscopes, an award-winning, national digital curriculum focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).  Colin has an M.S. in Neuroscience and Education from Columbia University Teachers College and currently works as an instructional coach for the YES Prep Public Schools in Houston where he trains and develops new teachers in low income schools.  While not a laboratory researcher, he is passionate about leveraging cognitive and behavioral neuroscience research to improve the quality of classroom instruction, and overall K-12 school systems.

Konstantin received his undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Michigan, where he conducted research on tendon cellular physiology.  After realizing that his training could be used to study the brain, Konstantin narrowed his focus to neuroscience.  In 2011, he began his graduate training in the Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program at UCLA and currently works under Dr. Sotiris Masmanidis in the department of Neurobiology.  His thesis focuses on utilizing novel recording technology to study how networks of brain cells store information and influence behavior. 

Kathy began her foray into neuroscience as a Master’s student at Columbia University, studying the role of protein degradation in neurodegeneration.  Currently a doctoral student at UCLA, Kathy uses imaging and electrophysiological techniques to study how neurons regulate neurotransmitter release on a rapid time scale, with an emphasis on understanding how exposure to environmental toxins can contribute to neuronal dysfunction.  Kathy plays an active role in graduate student affairs as a member of UCLA’s Biological Sciences Council and is passionate about science advocacy and outreach through outlets like AAAS and various on-campus STEM activities.

Laura made her first recording of neural activity in crayfish and lobsters as an undergraduate at the University of Victoria in 2006. Since this time she has worked as a research assistant studying the frog neuromuscular junction, completed a M.Sc. in Neuroscience at McGill University investigating homeostatic plasticity, and spent several months rock climbing in the Middle East and Africa. Laura is currently finishing up her Ph.D. with Dr. Pierre Drapeau at the University of Montreal where she has been studying the development and organization of spinal circuits in the embryonic zebrafish. She will be starting a post-doc at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Munich with Dr. Ruben Portugues this spring where she will explore sensorimotor circuits in the zebrafish with whole-brain calcium imaging.

Leena Ali Ibrahim graduated from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India with a Master’s degree in Life Sciences. She is currently a neuroscience graduate student at the University of Southern California. She studies auditory-visual interactions in the mouse visual cortex V1. Her future research interests include exploring how different brain regions develop and achieve their specific functions.

Mona graduated from the University of California, San Diego in 2006 with a B.S. in Physiology and Neuroscience.  In 2013, she completed her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, where she studied the relationship between psychopathic traits and a fronto-amygdala neural circuit in a community population.  During graduate school, she became interested in the legal implications of neuroscientific findings.  She is currently working as a Law and Neuroscience post-doctoral researcher at Vanderbilt University.

After Raz graduated with a BS in Biology and Psychology then an MA in Clinical Psychology, one night she asked, “What is consciousness?”  And the search continues.  Currently, she works as an ABA therapist with children on the autism spectrum and is an adjunct lecturer for a small university geared towards military veterans. In her spare time she is a researcher on the cusp of initiating a collaborative research project with the Dell Children’s Hospital and the University of Texas at Austin.  She is working towards elucidating the causes and functions of self-stimulatory behaviors in children with autism by melding applied behavioral analysis (ABA) and computational neuroscience techniques (EEG).  In her extra spare time she maintains a website fusing science and art, www.Ms-RAZarate.com, @Ms_RAZarate. 

Ryan received his Ph.D. in Neurobiology from UCLA in 2014. His dissertation research focused on investigating the neural mechanisms of acquired epilepsies and pathological neural network reorganization. More broadly, Ryan is interested in the emergent properties of neural microcircuits, which allow for high level neural computation, behavior, learning and consciousness. Ryan is now a postdoctoral fellow at UCSF and is studying genetic mechanisms of synaptic homeostasis. In his (rare) free time, Ryan enjoys photography, cooking, mountain biking and backpacking.

Lexie developed an interest in neuroscience whilst studying for her BSc in Psychology at Durham University, England, which she completed in 2013.  Currently working as a Psychology Research Assistant in the Health Service, Lexie will begin a Master’s programme at the same University in the autumn, and hopes to combine her research interests in Psychopathology with her fascination with cognitive neuroscience.

Ray started reading neuroscience books in his College of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China. Fascinated by learning and memory research, Ray joined a lab studying how different drugs affect learning and memory in the hippocampus. His continued passion for neuroscience brought him to the Neuroscience PhD program at the University of Southern California in 2008, where he is working to dissect the brain circuits of hearing, with the hope of understanding his love of eclectic music at a higher level. He loves to travel and take photos.

Ciara Martin is a 2006 graduate of the University of California, Davis,where she received her B.S. in Environmental Toxicology.  After graduating, Ciara worked for two years at UC Davis as an Air Quality technician, helping to monitor visibility in national parks and protected areas.  Ciara joined the Interdepartmental Molecular Toxicology Ph.D. program at UCLA 2009 and after her first year of rotations joined the lab of Dr. David Krantz.  She is currently investigating neurotoxic mechanisms of actions for pesticides linked to higher incidence Parkinson’s disease using the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, commonly known as the fruit fly.  Using live-imaging techniques, her work focuses on how pesticide exposure alters neuronal health and synaptic activity.

Brian graduated from Drexel University in 2011 with a B.S. in Chemistry and a minor in Biology.  His passion for neuroscience came during his senior year when he started to venture off course from the canonical chemistry courses and took classes in neurobiology and systems neuroscience.  After graduation, he worked as an Emergency Medical Technician, Lab Technician and AP Bio/Chemistry tutor.  He is now working on his graduate degree in Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, where he studies the co-dependent role of the immune and central nervous system in Alzheimer’s disease.

Nick received his B.S. in Biology from Caltech in 2009, after which he joined Pat Levitt’s lab at the University of Southern California as technical staff to work on the development of the Ex-Vivo Placental Perfusion System with Dr. Alexandre Bonnin.  In 2012, he joined Dr. Bonnin’s newly founded laboratory as a member of the Neuroscience Graduate Program at USC, pursuing a PhD.  His current research investigates the role of the placenta in the developmental programming of mental disorders.  Through the use of their novel perfusion system, he investigates how disruption of tryptophan metabolic flux through the placenta modulates neurodevelopment in the fetus, and ultimately contributes to the onset of mental disorders in the offspring.

Ryan earned his B.A. in Biology from the University of San Diego in 2011.  His earliest research focused on the evolution and development of the nematode nervous system.  Since finishing his bachelor’s degree, Ryan has studied a wide range of neuroscience topics including the molecular mechanisms of Huntington’s Disease, recovery from spinal cord injury, experience-dependent plasticity, and the transcriptional regulation of neurodevelopmental disorder risk genes.  His primary scientific interests include mammalian forebrain development and evolution, and the molecular underpinnings of psychiatric disorders.

Shelly Xuelai Fan is a PhD Candidate in Neuroscience at the University of British Columbia, where she studies protein degradation in neurodegenerative diseases.  She also has a special interest in adult neurogenesis.  She is an aspiring science writer with an insatiable obsession with the brain.  She mulls over neuroscience, microbiomes and nutrition over at Neurorexia (http://neurorexia.com).  Follow on twitter @ShellyFan.

Steven’s interest in the visual system and neuroscience in general stems from his time in high school exploring optical illusions and his realization of our visual field’s “blind spots.”  He fostered this interest by joining visual neuroscience research labs during is time at Vanderbilt University, from which he earned a B.E. in Biomedical Engineering in 2010.  Later that year, he enrolled in the Biomedical Engineering PhD program at the University of Southern California where he is currently investigating retinal stimulation strategies that may help improve the performance of retinal prostheses.

Sushmitha’s first stint with Neuroscience was as a Biotechnology undergraduate at the B.M.S College of Engineering, Bangalore, attempting to identify novel biomarkers for Autism. Hooked to the wondrous workings of the brain since the time, she has successfully completed a Masters in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at USC, where her project focused on the purinergic P2X7 receptor as a mediator of ethanol-induced neuroinflammation in mice models of acute and chronic ethanol abuse. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology at SUNY at Buffalo, studying the regulation of sodium-activated potassium channels in the dorsal root ganglion and their role in neuropathic pain using animal models.

Michael Condro became interested in neuroscience when taking neurobiology and behavior courses in at Cornell University, where he received his BS in 2005. He joined the Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular & Integrative Physiology Ph.D. program at UCLA, and recently received his doctorate. His graduate work related to the neurogenetic basis of learned vocalizations in zebra finches and how it relates to human speech. His research focused on the expression of an autism susceptibility gene in the songbird brain.

Steven graduated Southern Illinois University in 2007 with a BS in biological sciences.  During that time he was involved in neuroscience research under the guidance of Dr. Peter Patrylo and helped study the effects of cortical malformations in epilepsy and alterations in neuronal networks during the aging process.  Steven then went on to medical school at Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine and graduated in 2011.  He is currently in his 3^rd year as an Emergency Medicine resident and can be found working in the emergency departments throughout the Chicagoland area and northern Indiana.

Eliza received her B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of Riverside in 2009. It was not until her last quarter before graduating, did she became fascinated with neuroscience. After graduating, Eliza began working at Zymo Research as a research associate in Irvine, California where she fell in love with the new and exciting field of epigenetics. Now, Eliza is pursuing her graduate degree in Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, where she studies the epigenetic and pathological basis for age-related changes in the response to estrogen in the developing and injured brain.

Navya graduated from University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) with a BS in Bioinformatics. After graduating from UCSC, she spent a year at NASA Ames research center developing tools to predict structures of novel proteins that could be utilized in developing biofuels. Her fascination with the visual system began with a summer research program at University of California in a lab working on developing a retinal prosthesis. She joined the Biomedical Engineering graduate program at University of Southern California in the fall of 2008. She currently works addressing clinical issues faced by retinal prosthesis patients and on improving the efficiency of the prosthesis.