APPENDIX A
Neuroscience Strategic Planning Task Force Members
Jeff Blaustein, Psychological & Brain Sciences (Behavioral Neuroscience Division)
James Chambers, Chemistry
Rosie Cowell, Psychological & Brain Sciences (Cognitive Division)
David E. Huber, Psychological & Brain Sciences (Cognitive Division)
Rolf O. Karlstrom, Biology, Head
Jacquie Kurland, Communication Disorders
Genglin Li, Biology
Jennifer McDermott, Psychological & Brain Sciences (Developmental Division)
Sally Powers, College of Natural Sciences (Associate Dean for Faculty & Research);
Psychological & Brain Sciences (Clinical Division)
Peter Reinhart, Institute of Applied Life Sciences, Director; Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Luke Remage-Healey, Psychological & Brain Sciences (Behavioral Neuroscience Division)
Lisa S. Scott, Psychological & Brain Sciences (Developmental Division)
R. Thomas Zoeller, Biology
Neuroscience Faculty
(all affiliated with the graduate Neuroscience & Behavior Program)
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Annaliese Beery
Assistant Professor, Departments of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Biology, Smith College
Research Areas: Animal Behavior and Learning; Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience;
Neuroendocrinology
Research Interests: Study of the neurobiology of group-living rodents to understand
pathways supporting affiliative social behavior between peers. A second focus is the study
of epigenetic mechanisms (among others) by which experience changes the brain and
behavior.
Courtney Babbitt
Assistant Professor and Honors Faculty, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience
Research Interests: Gene expression, cis-regulatory elements, next-generation sequencing,
human brain evolution. We are interesting in combining next-gen sequencing,
computational analyses, and experimental techniques to understand the genomic bases for
the evolution of the human brain as compared to our closest relatives.
Joseph Bergan
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
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Research Areas: Animal Behavior and Learning; Neural and Behavioral Development;
Neuroendocrinology; Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: We seek to understand the principles of how social and defensive
stimuli are encoded in the activity of neurons, and how this process can be modulated by
behavior state, experience, and neuromodulation.
Eric L. Bittman
Professor, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience; Neuroendocrinology
Research Interests: Study of the molecular and neural basis of endogenous daily (circadian)
rhythms in mammals.
Jeffrey D. Blaustein (Member, Neuroscience Strategic Planning Task Force)
Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience; Neural and Behavioral Development;
Neuroendocrinology
Research Interests: Study of the cellular processes by which ovarian, steroid hormones act
in the brain to regulate a variety of behaviors, and by which information from the
environment influences these processes. Also, the influence of stressors and immune
challenge during the pubertal period on later brain and behavioral response to ovarian
hormones. Not taking new doctoral students.
Kyle R. Cave
Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Animal Behavior and Learning; Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational
Neuroscience
Research Interests: The various aspects of visual cognition, including visual attention, visual
imagery, and object recognition.
James Chambers (Member, Neuroscience Strategic Planning Task Force)
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience
Research Interests: Applying novel chemical biology tools and emerging biophysical
techniques to solve fundamental questions in neuroscience is the focus of his research.
Julia T. Choi
Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: My research is focused on understanding the principles of motor
learning and neuroplasticity, in particular questions related to human walking and balance. I
examine gait and posture in healthy subjects and patients with neurological disorders.
Rosie Cowell (Member, Neuroscience Strategic Planning Task Force)
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
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Research Areas: Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: Memory and Visual Perception (using computational modeling and brain
imaging)
Gerald B. Downes
Associate Professor, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience; Neural and Behavioral Development;
Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: Groups of neurons within the spinal cord coordinate the precise
movements of locomotive behavior, such as walking or swimming. The laboratory is
interested in the development, organization, and function of these neuronal networks and
the use the zebrafish embryo as the model system.
David E. Huber (Member, Neuroscience Strategic Planning Task Force)
Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: Research focuses on human perception and memory from a broadbased, computational perspective. To shed light on these basic cognitive processes, we find
converging evidence from behavioral studies and neurophysiological measures in
combination with neural network and Bayesian modeling.
Elizabeth M. Jakob
Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Animal Behavior and Learning
Research Interests: Jumping spiders have different types of eyes: the principal eyes act like
tiny telephoto lenses, while the secondary eyes have a wider range of view and are thought
to be specialized in detecting motion.
Abigail Jensen
Associate Professor, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience; Neural and Behavioral Development
Research Interests: Molecular and cellular mechanisms of vertebrate retinal development
and retinal disease.
Alexandra Jesse
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: Speech perception, with a special emphasis on audiovisual speech
perception. Investigate how we process speech from hearing and seeing a speaker talk.
Rolf O. Karlstrom (Member, Neuroscience Strategic Planning Task Force)
Professor, Department Chair, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience; Neural and Behavioral Development
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Research Interests: Using zebrafish as a simple vertebrate system to study how the
forebrain and pituitary gland develop, and to investigate how axons are guided across the
midline to form the forebrain commissures and optic chiasm.
Jacquie Kurland (Member, Neuroscience Strategic Planning Task Force)
Associate Professor, Department of Communication Disorders, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: Understanding mechanisms supporting brain reorganization in
poststroke aphasia.
Youngbin Kwak
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: Neural bases of motor learning, reward based learning and decision
making; Social influence and lifespan changes in learning and decision making behavior.
Agnès Lacreuse
Associate Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Animal Behavior and Learning; Neuroendocrinology; Sensorimotor,
Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: Understand how sex steroid hormones modulate cognition and emotion
across the lifespan of primates.
Genglin Li (Member, Neuroscience Strategic Planning Task Force)
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience; Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and
Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: Biophysical properties of ion channels, synaptic transmission in sensory
systems, sensory information encoding and decoding.
Jennifer McDermott (Member, Neuroscience Strategic Planning Task Force)
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Neural and Behavioral Development; Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and
Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: Bridging developmental, cognitive, and affective neuroscience in order
to explore the role of early experience in relation to cognitive and social development.
David E. Moorman
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Animal Behavior and Learning; Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience;
Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: Cellular and network mechanisms of motivation, learning, and executive
functions (e.g., decision-making). Neural function in animal models of addiction, ADHD,
obesity, and depression. Neurotechnology and neural computation.
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Melinda Novak
Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Animal Behavior and Learning
Joonkoo Park
Assistant Professor and Honors Faculty
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: Cognitive, neural, and developmental mechanisms underlying the
acquisition and emergence of culturally-transmitted and uniquely human abilities such as
reading and mathematics.
Mariana Pereira
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Animal Behavior and Learning; Neuroendocrinology; Sensorimotor,
Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: Exploring the basis of cognitive, motivational and affective mechanisms
of parenting at the behavioral, neural and neurochemical levels, both under healthy
conditions and in the context of maternal neuropsychiatric disorders; emphasis on limbiccortical-striatal interactions, mesocorticolimbic dopamine system and animal models of
depression and drug addiction.
Sandra Petersen
Professor, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience; Neural and Behavioral Development;
Neuroendocrinology
Research Interests: Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the
brain signal for ovulation.
Jeffrey E. Podos
Professor, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Animal Behavior and Learning
Research Interests: Interface of animal behavior, organismal biology, and evolutionary
biology.
Sally Powers (Member, Neuroscience Strategic Planning Task Force)
Associate Dean for Faculty and Research, College of Natural Sciences
Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Neural and Behavioral Development; Neuroendocrinology
Research Interests: Investigates the interaction of neuroendocrine, social, and psychological
factors in depression and anxiety disorders throughout the human lifespan.
Luke Remage-Healey (Member, Neuroscience Strategic Planning Task Force)
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Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Animal Behavior and Learning; Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience;
Neuroendocrinology
Research Interests: Study of behavioral physiology, specifically the non-traditional
regulation of brain function and behavior by steroid hormones.
Heather N. Richardson
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Animal Behavior and Learning; Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience;
Neural and Behavioral Development; Neuroendocrinology
Research Interests: The focus of the Stress and Addiction Lab is to determine the
neurobiological mechanisms underlying stress-related disorders using rodent models.
Lisa Sanders
Associate Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: Basic auditory perception, selective attention, and the role of selective
attention in processing complex sounds including speech.
Lisa S. Scott (Member, Neuroscience Strategic Planning Task Force)
Associate Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Neural and Behavioral Development; Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and
Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: The study of the neural mechanisms of perceptual category learning and
perceptual experience in primarily developmental, but also adult, populations.
Larry M. Schwartz
Professor, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience; Neural and Behavioral Development
Research Interests: Defining the molecular mechanisms that mediate programmed cell
death which is a fundamental component of development and homeostasis in virtually all
organisms. Defects in the regulation of cell death serves as the basis of many human
diseases, including auto-immunity, neurodegeneration and most cancers.
Hava T. Siegelmann
Professor, Department of Computer Science, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Animal Behavior and Learning; Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational
Neuroscience
Research Interests: Characterizing computation and information processing in brain.
Theories for brain-like computation: adaptive, analog, and its correlation with memory
reconsolidation, cognition, and adaptive perception, Brain inspired computation for use in
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, algorithms and technologies. Dynamical systems in
time-based brain computation, in brain disease and health.
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Rebecca Spencer
Associate Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: Cognition and action, most often addressing the fine line between these
two dimensions.
Richard van Emmerik
Professor, Department of Kinesiology, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Computational Neuroscience
Research Interests: The effects of fatigue on balance and postural control in Multiple
Sclerosis. Assessment of changes in balance control in Parkinson's disease and older
individuals with and without a tendency of falling.
R. Thomas Zoeller (Member, Neuroscience Strategic Planning Task Force)
Professor, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst
Research Areas: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience; Neuroendocrinology
Research Interests: "Thyroid Hormone Action on Brain Development" and "Environmental
Disruption of Thyroid Hormone Action"
Associated Faculty
Lori Astheimer
Lecturer, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Interests:
Auditory attention, speech perception, and the relationship between attention and
language skills in children and adults
John-Paul Baird
Associate Professor; Chair of Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Amherst College
Research Interests: Neural mechanisms of feeding and satiety.
Michael J.F. Barresi
Professor of Biological Sciences, Smith College
Research Interests: Developmental Neurobiology, Assistant Neuron and Glial Cell
Interactions; Astroglial Cell Development in the CNS
Andrew G. Barto
Professor, Computer Science, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: Learning in Animals and Machines; Reinforcement Learning;
Computational and Neural Models of Motor Learning
Elliott M. Blass
Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
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Research Interests: Development of motivational systems in human newborns and in the
basis of obesity in human adults.
Barry S. Braun
Associate Professor, Department of Kinesiology, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: Working on ways to optimize the design of an exercise "drug" to
enhance metabolic health, irrespective of body composition.
Shannon Compton
Lecturer, Microbiology Department, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: Parkinson's Disease and Brain Cancer
Elizabeth A. Connor
Associate Professor, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: To determine the contribution of glial Schwann cells and extracellular
matrix molecules to nerve terminal stability at the frog neuromuscular junction.
Jane W. Couperus
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Hampshire College
Research Interests: Understanding selection (how we attend to relevant information) and
filtering (how we ignore irrelevant information) aspects of selective attention in adults and
the development of selective attention more generally in children.
Cristina Cox Fernandes
Adjunct Research Assistant Professor and Curator of Fishes, Department of Biology, UMass
Amherst
Research Interests: Focusing on the ecology and evolutionary diversity of neotropical
freshwater fishes, particularly within the Amazon River basin.
Matt Davidson
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: Understanding of the development of executive functions, including
attention, working memory and cognitive control. Exploring the effects of physical activity
on cognitive abilities and emotional stability in children and young adults, including gender
related differences before, during, and after puberty.
Ethan R. Graf
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Amherst College
Research Interests: Synapse development, Drosophila neurobiology, Molecular mechanisms
of learning and memory.
Adam Hall
Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College
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Research Interests: Molecular mechanisms of anesthetic action in the mammalian nervous
system.
Joseph Hamill
Professor and Chair, Department of Exercise Science, Associate Dean, School of Public
Health and Health Sciences, Department of Exercise Science, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: Study of the mechanics of the lower extremity. Mechanisms for both
overuse and traumatic injuries to the lower extremities.
Mary Harrington
Professor, Department of Psychology, Smith College
Research Interests: Addressing the link between disruption of circadian rhythms and health.
Epidemiological studies suggest a link between occupations that involve shift work or
frequent jet lag and an increased incidence of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other
negative health consequences.
Duncan J. Irschick
Professor, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: Evolution and ecology of animal performance. The evolution of complex
functional systems in all its facets. Integrates microevolutionary and macroevolutionary
approaches, and applies both experimental and descriptive approaches to understand the
causes of, and ultimately the consequences of this diversity.
Gary Kamen
Professor, Department of Kinesiology, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: Adaptations in the human neuromuscular control system. The changes
in neural control properties resulting from exercise training, muscle disuse, and/or aging,
and mechanisms controlling human motor unit discharge behavior.
Diane Kelly
Adjunct Research Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences,
UMass Amherst
Research Interests: Sexual differentiation and function of the genitalia and nervous system;
evolution of copulatory systems in vertebrates; learning and neural plasticity.
Jane Kent-Braun
Professor, Department of Kinesiology, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: Quantifying age, gender, and activity based changes in human skeletal
muscle function. Measuring the roles of neural activation, intramuscular metabolism,
contractile function and blood flow in the development of muscle fatigue in a variety of
populations.
Tanya Leise
Assistant Professor, Mathematics Department, Amherst College
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Research Interests: Circadian rhythms, mathematical modeling and analysis of biological
oscillators, time series analysis using wavelet transforms.
Michele Markstein
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: Regulation of gene expression, Genome architecture, Epigenetics of
intestinal and neural stem cells. We are interested in understanding fundamental
mechanisms that coordinate and compartmentalize the transcription of genes as a function
of their positions in the genome. We have found that the effects of genome position vary
across cell types indicating that genome position effects are plastic. To study the
mechanisms and consequences of genome plasticity we use the fruit fly Drosophila
melanogaster where we develop transgenic probes, disease models, chemical assays and
bioinformatics tools to study position effects across cells in a multicellular animal.
Jerrold S. Meyer
Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: The neurochemical, neurotoxic, and behavioral effects of
psychostimulant drugs.
Joanna Morris
Associate Professor, School of Cognitive Science, Hampshire College
Research Interests: The structure of lexical representations and in applying
electrophysiological techniques, in particular event related potentials, to the investigation
of cognitive phenomena.
Sarah Partan
Associate Professor, School of Cognitive Science, Hampshire College
Research Interests: How animals communicate with audio and visual signals, focusing on
the interactions among signal components from different sensory channels that are emitted
simultaneously.
J. Richard Pilsner
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Public Health Environmental Health Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: J. Richard Pilsner is an interdisciplinary molecular epidemiologist. His
research focuses on the role of epigenetics as a mechanism linking maternal and paternal
environmental exposures to reproductive and offspring health.
Rebecca E. Ready
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: Emotion, Stress, and Adult Development
Alexander Suvorov
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Public Health Environmental Health Sciences, UMass Amherst
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Research Interests: Our main research interests consist in the study of toxicity of
environmental endocrine disruptors in mammal models using a variety of approaches
including traditional methods of toxicology as well as state of the art genomic (RNA-seq)
and epigenetic methods (ChIP-seq, DHS-seq) which capitalize on recent advances in high
throughput sequencing. In particular we focus on long-term reprogramming of metabolic
and neuro-behavioral functions by developmental exposures to endocrine disruptors.
Josef Trapani
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biology and Neuroscience Program, Amherst College
Research Interests: Understanding how external sensory information is transformed into
neuronal activity. Examining the physiology of sensory hair cells. Characterizing the
organization and function of the lateral-line system in zebrafish.
Laura Vandenberg
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Public Health Environmental Health Sciences, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: Endocrine disruptors, hazard assessment, developmental biology,
endocrinology. Research explores how early life exposures to chemicals and chemical
mixtures can predispose individuals to diseases that manifest later in life.
Nagendra Yadava
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst
Research Interests: Understand how mitochondrial dysfunction leads to neurodegeneration
and other age-associated diseases such as diabetes and cancer, and the molecular,
biochemical and physiological causes of mitochondrial dysfunction.
Wei-Dong Yao
Assistant Professor, Division of Behavioral Biology
New England Primate Research Center, Harvard Medical School
Research Interests: Understanding the mechanisms mediating dopamine-glutamate
interaction and the neurobiology of addiction.
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