Student Alums

Tianyi graduated in 2023 with MA in Developmental Psychology at Teachers’ College, Columbia University. She graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a B.A. in Psychology and a B.A. in Economics. She worked as a research assistant at the Attitude and Group Identity Lab at UC Davis and as a TA at Montessori Early Education Organization, where she discovered her interest in child language development and learning acquisition. In the Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, she ran the developmental study of numerical cognition in children who speak Mandarin. She is passionate about how environmental factors, parenting, and related interventions affect children’s language development and learning acquisition.

Nicholas (“Nick”) graduated in 2023 with an M.A. in the Clinical Psychology program at Teachers College. He has been a research assistant for the LCN lab since the Fall of 2021. Prior to attending TC, Nick earned a B.A. degree in Psychology with minors in Neuroscience and Deaf Studies at Ithaca College. There he assisted Dr. Brandy Bessette-Symons in her cognitive research project on emotional memory. He pursued a concentration in Neuropsychology as he finished his program. He also wishes to combine his passion for the Deaf community with his psychological endeavors as he explores American Sign Language and considerations of deafness within the field of psychology.

Praveen graduated with an M.A. in the Developmental Psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. He graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County with a B.A. in Psychology and a B.A. in Biological Sciences. At UMBC, Praveen was a Writing Fellow and a research assistant in the Promoting Understanding in Life Sciences Education Lab, where he gained an interest in cognitive development and education. In the Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, he conducted EEG data cleaning and literature reviews, and ran an online study researching numerical cognition in children.

Ariana graduated in 2023 with an M.S. in Neuroscience and Education. She has been a research assistant in the LCN Lab since Spring 2022. She is also currently a research assistant in the Mann Lab at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute. She graduated from Rowan University with a B.S. in Chemistry and a minor in French in 2021. During her undergraduate years, she worked under the direction of Dr. Gustavo Moura-Letts, synthesizing therapeutic organic molecules. Her current research interest includes investigating the effects of environmental changes on synaptic plasticity and nervous system development at the molecular level.

Emily graduated in 2023 with an M.S. in Neuroscience and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a major in History and a minor in Education. While studying at UC Berkeley she began to develop an interest in neurocognitive and emotional development through her Education courses and experiences as a literacy mentor, in education non-profits, and in the Oakland Unified School District. As a Research Assistant at the Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, she conducted EEG data cleaning, processing, and visualizations, conducted literature reviews, and ran EEG experiments.

Zhiyu graduated in 2023 with an M.A. in the Cognitive Science in Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is broadly interested in the relationship between language and cognition and her thesis at TC is on early childhood numerical cognition. She graduated from Purdue University with a major in Developmental Psychology and a minor in Japanese Pedagogy. During her study at Purdue University, she became interested in language acquisition and cognitive development and was a research assistant in the Social Interaction in VR lab. During her first year at TC, she was a part-time teacher in a language school in Manhattan, led an E-learning program that implements social-emotional learning (SEL) in an education non-profit. 

Here at the Language and Neurocognitive Science Lab, she conducted EEG data cleaning and processing, literature reviews, assessment design, and led the study on numerical cognition in Mandarin-speaking children.

Shengyue Xiong was a research assistant in the Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Columbia University, focusing on EEG study on individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and developmental study on numerical cognition. She was fascinated by the neural basis of speech perception and the relationship between language and brain. Shengyue graduated from University College London with a M.S. in Psychology and Language Sciences. When she was studying at UCL, she was a member of Speech on the Brain Lab working on perceptual adaptation to noise-vocoded speech. Before she went to the UK, she completed her Bachelor’s degree at Shandong University in China with a major of English literature and linguistics. She also worked as a research assistant in the Natural Language Processing Group at Tsinghua University and the Laboratory of Phonetics and Language Sciences at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Yingjing Zhao graduated from TC's TESOL program. She graduated from the University of Colorado-Boulder with a degree in Psychology. It is fascinating to her how language and psychology can be combined to enable students to learn effectively. She was a peer educator, helping students focus on their health promotion and supporting international students studying abroad. In addition, she participated in Stanford University's Laboratory on Neural Mechanisms underlying Visual Word Recognition in Typical and Dyslexic Readers. In the Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, she was hoping to gain more insight into psychological and language-related competencies.

Sam Elliott is a second-year master’s student in Developmental Psychology. His research interests include cognitive development -- especially the development of number sense -- and schizophrenia. While at TC, Sam grabbed the opportunity to also join labs studying perceptual organization and mathematics education. Previously, he earned a BS in Microbiology. Sam has lived in New York (Queens), the Midwest, and, currently, SouthWest Florida.

Wanjun Xiong is a second-year graduate student in Developmental Psychology M.A. program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She graduated from Boston University, with a B.A. in Psychology and a B.A. in Economics. She worked as a research assistant at Jiangxi Science & Technology Normal University Psychology Lab, and a cognitive functioning teachers for international students. Motivated by what she learned from academic and work places, she discovered her passion in language and cognition functioning development during early childhood. As a new member in the Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, she will be working on the Mandarin project that investigates early childhood numerical cognition development among Chinese-speakers. She also joins Korean number team, exploring the role of language in processing arithmetic facts among Korean-speakers.

Tongyu Li is a second-year graduate student in the Developmental Psychology M.A. program at Teachers College, Columbia University. He graduated from University of Rochester with B.A.s in Psychology and Brain & Cognitive Sciences. During his study at UR, he volunteered as a research assistant at the National Key Lab of cognitive neuroscience and learning at Beijing Normal University conducting research on correlation between children’s protein variants and cognitive development. He has an interest in second language acquisition and language influence on social-cognitive development in children. Being new to the LCN lab, he participates in training for EEG session running and data analysis. He also joins the Mandarin project exploring children’s numerical cognition and is willing to learn more about the influence of language on children’s numerical understanding.

Rui is currently a third year PhD student studying Cognitive Science at Teachers College Columbia University.  She received an Honors BS in Psychology from the University of Toronto, and a MA in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University.

In Rui Gong’s current research project, she wants to understand how induced moods influence individuals’ decision-making processes. She uses eye-tracker as one measure to learn about any potential relationship between allocation of attention and strategy use. 

Nick is a second year student pursuing a M.S. Neuroscience and Education degree. As an undergraduate receiving dual B.S. Neurobiology / B.S. Psychology degrees at UT Austin he studied neurodegenerative diseases, primarily early detection of Parkinson’s. Between undergraduate and graduate studies he worked as an educator, building four advanced physics programs with different conceptual focuses. As a result, his guiding questions revolve around how children create conceptual models with limited or absent perceptual data. This is currently manifested in research with Dr. Gordon on the physiological and cognitive basis of number.

Stasha is a first year Master's student who recently moved from the state of Rhode Island to attend Teachers College. During her undergraduate career she studied in London, England and completed an internship with a neuroscience lab in Paris, France. She is currently pursuing a degree in Neuroscience and Education with the Biobehavioral Sciences Department and is interested in studying learning and memory.

Daniela is a first-year master’s student in the Neuroscience and Education program at Teachers College. She obtained a B.S. in Psychology and a B.S. in Biochemistry at the University of Tulsa, where she performed research in the Individual Differences Lab branch of the Neuroscience Institute for Complex Adaptive Systems. Her research has focused on examining physiological mechanisms and how they relate to various adaptive psychological traits, for example, the relationship between pupillary responses and psychoticism scales. She is currently involved in the EEG and perceptual organization study, where she is captivated by the neural underpinnings of visual perception and cognition.      

Maitri works in the Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab as a research assistant. She is a first year student in the Clinical psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has previously worked in the area of emotional first aid and child development. She is interested in the area of psychopathology and its neurological basis.

Agrima is a second year Masters student in the Neuroscience and Education program at TC. She obtained her B.A. in Psychology and Economics from New York University, and currently volunteers as a research intern at the Neurobiology of Cognition Lab at NYU. She is interested in the neurobiological bases of memory and learning.

Andrea Karaiskaki is a graduate student in the MS Neuroscience and Education program. She received her bachelor's degree in Psychology at the University of Iowa where she was also a research coordinator in the ADHD and development lab investigating the gene-environment interplay in teenagers with ADHD. Upon beginning graduate school, she became involved with molecular therapeutics research studying the critical periods of MD-PFC connectivity in patients with schizophrenia at NYSPI. Additionally, she is part of an fMRI project at Zuckerman Institute studying empathy networks in reciprocal social interaction and the emergence of the default mode network as part of the social brain. Currently, she is involved in the Language and Cognition lab assisting in the project that studies the biobehavioral markers of perceptual organization in patients with schizophrenia.

Camilla is a first year student at the M.S. Neuroscience and Education degree. As an undergraduate receiving a B.S. Neuroscience degree at King’s College London she studied molecular and cellular Neuroscience, particularly focusing on neurodegenerative diseases and chronic pain. Before coming to Dr..Gordon’s lab, she worked on research investigating the role of macrophages in the development of chronic pain at the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases (KCL). Camilla is now interested in learning about neurobiological basis of language, memory and behaviour.

Sadra is a second-year Master's student in the Neuroscience and Education program at Teachers College, and previously earned a BS in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Kansas Honors Program. During his undergraduate years, Sadra worked as a research assistant in several labs and conducted his own independent research study focusing on the effects of different early education methods on a child's standardized test performance. Currently, Sadra is interested in researching the risk factors of childhood trauma, its effects on brain development, and how said effects can influence a child's behavior and headspace throughout the remainder of their lives.

Ruoyi (Rory) is a second year Master’s student in the Clinical Psychology program at TC. She graduated from University of Pennsylvania with her M.S.ED in TESOL in 2017. Her research interests involve cognitive and language development in children, early childhood and its impact on future cognitive development.

Ben has recently received his M.S. in Neuroscience and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2021. Previously, Ben has worked as a Research Assistant working with children with autism at Queens College, a Research Associate at NYU Langone Health in a substance abuse study in the Emergency Department, as a Data Management Consultant in the BOLD program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine working with cancer patients, and as a Research Assistant in NYSPI in an Adolescent Imaging and Sleep study.

Currently, Ben's research interests are in (1) working in the Perceptual Organization EEG-Oddball Task study using Psykinematix, and (2) seeing how early life experiences and socioeconomic status can influence a child's brain development using EEG and virtual reality.

Lingwei is a second year master’s student in Cognitive Science in Education and came to Dr. Gordon's lab in the fall of 2018. Her undergraduate degree was in Translation and Interpreting and completed her thesis in Psycholinguistics. Before she came to Dr.Gordon's lab, she volunteered for three months at Dr.Stern's Taub Institute and assisted neuropsychological assessment about Alzheimer's disease and also volunteers at Dr. Shohamy's lab assisting fMRI experiments. She is interested in how language can be revealed in brain activity by EEG analysis and how cognition of numbers can be revealed in language.

David is a master's student in the Neuroscience and Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Prior to joining the lab, he was a U.S. Army captain, where he was an expert at project management, aviation logistics, and leading convoys (sometimes in the right direction). He received his undergraduate education in Entrepreneurial Management from Texas Christian University. His research interests are in Artificial General Intelligence (with an emphasis on natural language processing) and neuron-glia interactions. He is currently involved with coding adult-child interactions for the Pirahã project.

Liu is a second year student in the Bilingual/Bicultural Education Program. She is a research assistant in the lab, facilitating the Pirahã study, developmental study, and numerical cognition study, via ELAN and EEG methods. She is interested in looking at how our brain works while processing (L1 & L2) languages during different learning stages, and how a mother tongue can affect the perception and processing of a second language.

Yuefu earned a Master’s of Science in Neuroscience and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2018. His research interests are language acquisition, neural substrates of semantic concepts, and neural basis of internalization and externalization of language.

Huijing (Vicky) is currently a Master’s student in Developmental Psychology. Previously she was a research assistant at the Treatment of Regulation Team, and Electronic Geodesic, Inc. She has experience in HydroCel Geodesic Sensor Net Application and a child/mother experiment. Her research interests include language acquisition, learning, and memory.

Anh received his M.A. in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in neuroscience at Teachers College, Columbia University back in May of 2018. He is a research assistant in the Cognitive Neuropsychology Lab led by Dr. Waxman, which is also a collaborative lab to Language & Cognition. Altogether, he played a critical role on the neuropsychiatric project that investigates perceptual organization and eye-tracking at Mt. Sinai and the Language & Cognition Lab. Currently, he is involved with the EEG study in the Language & Cognition Lab which aims to investigate the neurophysiology of visual perception and cognition.

Ximo (Molly) Tong is a graduated M.A. student in Cognitive Science in Education program at Teachers College in the year 2018. She has been a Mandarin and English teacher for five years. She has been working in the language and cognition lab as research assistant since 2017. She also had worked as a rapporteur for language and cognition seminar in Columbia University. Her research interests include cognitive development in second language learning, parent-child interaction, and Chinese pedagogy.

Zhongyu (Lizzy) is a first year student in the Developmental Psychology Master’s program. Previosly, she worked in the Human Color Vision Perception Lab and the Early Childhood Cognition Lab. Her current research interest involves how infant language acquisition can affect their prosocial behavior.