Ilina Bhaya-Grossman is a PhD candidate in Dr. Edward Chang’s lab at UCSF where she studies how the human brain processes language, with a particular focus on how brain activity is affected by cross linguistic differences. She studies this question by working with patient populations who have undergone an invasive implantation procedure as part of their clinical care. As a neuroscientist who interfaces directly with patients, Ilina is interested in the language we use to communicate science to human study participants and the public at large. To this end, she has been involved in several...
Juliana Chase is currently a 5th year PhD student in Behavioral & Systems Neuroscience at UC Berkeley. Juliana’s dissertation work employs experimental and computational techniques to better understand neural circuit differences in mouse models of autism. Throughout her PhD, Juliana has been interested in what happens when science leaves the lab and has been engaged with science policy and outreach organizations on campus. As a fellow, Juliana hopes to build on her experience as an organizer and science communicator to explore how scientists can partner with affected communities...
James Evershed uses formal tools to tackle problems in areas of ethics including our duties to help those in need, the right to privacy, population ethics, axiology, animal ethics, equality, and desert. James is passionate about working on real-world issues and was drawn to the Kavli Center by its commitment to helping technological advances be beneficial to everyone.
During the Kavli Ethics, Science, and the Public Graduate Fellowship James hopes to work on: (1) the implications of predictive algorithms for our privacy; (2) whether the control problem for artificial intelligence...
Chad Harper is a PhD candidate in Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, with a research focus on complex network dynamics and biological computation. Chad’s work spans multiple fields, from computational neuroscience and category theory to machine learning theory and bioethics, driven by a commitment to ethical, analytically-driven decision-making. His recent collaborations with Stanford’s Currie Lab explore ethical frameworks for organ transplant allocation, addressing social disparities in wait times and outcomes. Previously, Chad applied interdisciplinary analysis as a data...
Jen Holmberg is a Neuroscience PhD student conducting psilocybin research at UC Berkeley with the Center for the Science of Psychedelics (co-advised by Professors Jack Gallant and Michael Silver). Jen’s research is focused on understanding the brain mechanisms that mediate the psychedelic experience. Specifically, Jen uses fMRI, naturalistic stimuli, and computational models to investigate how psilocybin affects visual information processing in the brain during the acute drug experience.
In recent years, psychedelics have made a significant resurgence in public discourse, primarily...
From the very start, the development of the human brain is coordinated by highly specialized gene expression patterns that continue to change not only in prenatal, childhood, or adolescent stages, but also well into adulthood. Leana King's thesis work in the Cognitive Neuroanatomy Lab (P.I. Kevin Weiner) aims to examine this dynamic relationship between gene expression and brain development. As a 4th year PhD student, King's interest in the field of genetics has also grown. From starting out in perceptual and computational neuroscience to now relating development and neuroanatomy to...
Before returning to academia, Dorna Mohaghegh practiced intellectual property law in New York. Dorna was a senior associate at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, a boutique law firm primarily serving the advertising and entertainment industries, and an associate with Willkie Farr & Gallagher, where she advised private equity investors in the technology sector. Dorna received her J.D. from NYU Law in 2014, where she was an Associate Editor for the Journal of Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law and a research assistant for Dean Emeritus Richard L. Revesz. Dorna received her BA in...
Milan Mossé is a philosophy PhD student working primarily on moral and political philosophy. His dissertation concerns the ways in which the values served by requests, offers, commands, and other forms of second-personal address constrain their permissible use, but Milan has also worked on AI, explainable AI, algorithmic fairness, and AI safety. At the Kavli Center, he will continue working with collaborators on a model of algorithmic discrimination, and on a paper concerning the right to explanation. He is excited to explore more public-facing work and to pursue interdisciplinary projects...
P.S.Nandini, MS, is a PhD student in Dr. Edward Chang's Lab at UCSF as part of the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Bioengineering Graduate Program. She holds an MS in Neuroscience from Berlin, Germany and Amsterdam, Netherlands, with the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship. For her PhD, Nandini is researching invasive deep brain stimulation in humans to treat depression in patients with treatment-resistant depression who have been surgically implanted with a brain-computer interface (BCI), as part of an ongoing clinical trial.
As a Kavli Ethics, Science, and the Public Fellow, Nandini is interested...
Jenna Petersen, MS, CGC, is a genetic counselor by training and is currently pursuing a Masters of Business Administration at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. Her professional experience includes consulting on the development of precision medicine and population genomics programs and providing clinical guidance for large-scale consumer genetic testing products. She specializes in developing education and engagement strategies for patients and healthcare providers to promote the responsible adoption of genomics initiatives. At the Kavli Center, Petersen will examine how...
