Ziv Ben-Zion, PhD

Ziv is a Fulbright Postdoc Fellow in Levy Decision Neuroscience Lab & Harpaz-Rotem Stress and PTSD Lab at Yale University. He received his B.Sc. in Biology and in Psychology with an emphasis on Neuroscience (Summa Cum Laude) from the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel-Aviv University in 2015. In 2020, he completed an Interdisciplinary Direct Ph.D. in Neuroscience program under the supervision of Prof. Talma Hendler, at the Sagol Brain Institute, Tel-Aviv University and Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. Ziv's Ph.D. research focused on uncovering neural and cognitive moderators of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptom trajectories. In his postdoc at Yale, under the mutual supervision of Prof. Ifat Levy & Ilan Harpaz-Rotem, he aims to to further elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying anxiety- and stress-related disorders, in order to advance novel mechanism-based treatments and improved clinical outcomes for individuals suffering from these debilitating disorders.

Or Duek, PhD

As a clinical psychologist, Or gained experience at Soroka University Medical Center’s PTSD clinic, where he worked with children and families who had experienced traumatic events. He has also worked as a research coordinator at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, examining the outcome of traumatic brain injury in children and adults as part of an international initiative for TBI. In recent years,  Or’s main interests have revolved around finding novel treatments for PTSD through understanding the mechanisms of both the disorder and its treatment on clinical and neuronal levels.

Nachshon Korem, PhD

Nachshon is a postdoctoral associate with the department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. His previous work focused on how consolidation and reconsolidation of fear memories affect the development of fear memories and post traumatic stress disorder. In addition, he investigated how anxiety shapes perception in human subjects. Nachshon’s current aims are to better understand how previous experience and psychopathology interact to shape decision making processes on behavioral and neuronal levels.

Ohad Dan, PhD

Ohad received his B.Sc in Computer Science, M.Sc in computational Neuroscience, and Ph.D. in Cognitive Sciences from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem while working as a data-scientist consultant in the tech industry. In his doctoral work, Ohad studied the algorithmic principles underlying human decision-making and learning, highlighting the role of intrinsic exploration (curiosity, entropy-maximization) in driving human behavior. As a cognitive neuroeconomist, Ohad is interested in explanations rooted in neuroscience for value-based cognitive processes. To this end, he borrows theories from behavioral economics and methodologies from neuroscience and mixes them using advanced statistical modeling to explain biological and environmental effects on decision making. Some specific interests of his include the neural basis of decision making in obesity, behavior modulation using real-time fMRI (neurofeedback), and contextual effects in risk attitude formation.

Mohammed Almazrouei, PhD 

Dr. Mohammed Almazrouei is an Abu Dhabi Police Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University. He is working with Prof. Ifat Levy as the Principal Investigator and other collaborators to further advance science on decision-making and optimizing performance under stress, including within the forensic science context. The fellowship is ideally situated within Center of Neurocognition & Behavior in the newly established Wu Tsai Institute, and the Yale Department of Comparative Medicine. He has recently completed a PhD in forensic decision-making at UCL Centre for the Forensic Sciences, under the supervision of Prof. Ruth Morgan and Dr. Itiel Dror. His PhD research focused on the possible sources and impacts of workplace stress on decision-making in forensic science. Dr. Almazrouei has published several peer-reviewed articles describing his research on stress and feedback in forensic decision-making, and presented in international conferences and also to forensic service providers on these topics.  Dr. Almazrouei is also a forensic practitioner in the Abu Dhabi Police Forensic Evidence Department, United Arab Emirates. He is an affiliate member of the OSAC Human Factors Task Group, embedded within the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. 

Chelsea Xu

Chelsea is a graduate student in Yale's Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program. She received her B.S. in Neural Science from New York University, where she worked with Dr. Stefan Feske to examine the role of microglia in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis. Her interest in neuroimmunology and sex differences led her to join the late Dr. Ronald Duman's lab to study the immune response in a mouse chronic unpredictable stress model and later, synaptic changes associated with the antidepressant action of allopregnanolone. She read with Dr. Levy for her qualifying exam, and she is currently interested in the effects of nicotine on decision making.

Alex Rich

Alex is a graduate student in the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program at Yale. She received her B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities where she worked with Drs. Ann Haynos and Lisa Anderson to investigate decision-making and ruminative processes in eating disorders. This work, in tandem with her time in Dr. Ben Hayden's lab examining the neural basis of decision-making in rhesus monkeys, lent to her current interests in translational neuroscience research examining transdiagnostic properties of cognition and behavior.

Sarah Danböck

Sarah is a visiting PhD student at Harpaz-Rotem PTSD Treatment & Research Lab. Her research projects focus on the neurobiological underpinning of trauma-related dissociation employing a broad range of methods including psychophysiology, stabilometry, eye-tracking and fMRI in healthy participants and patients with PTSD.
Sarah has completed a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at LMU Munich (Germany) and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Doctoral College "Imaging the Mind" at the University of Salzburg (Austria) being supervised by Prof. Frank Wilhelm (Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychopathology).

Twitter: @SarahDanboeck
Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah-Danboeck

Christopher Dunlock

Christopher graduated from the Xavier University of Louisiana with a Bachelor in Biochemistry. His research interests are broad and include PTSD, anxiety, and decision making. Christopher enjoys doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu and salsa dancing during his free time.

Sierra Metviner

Sierra received her Bachelor’s in Psychology from Pace University. In her undergraduate studies she was a research assistant in the Interpersonal Behavior Lab studying parental capitalization support, negative event support, and their effect on children’s academic success. In addition, she conducted research of the effect personal need for structure has on beliefs and coping with Covid-19. She is interested in working on research pertaining to human behaviors and individual differences and their influences on decision making.

Megan Paterson

Megan graduated from Fairfield University, where she earned a B.S. in Psychology with a concentration in Behavioral Neuroscience. During her undergraduate studies, she was a research assistant in the Social Cognition Lab studying awareness of implicit bias toward the mentally ill, and she developed a fascination with neuroscience during her internship in the Yale PTSD Stress Lab. She is excited to use functional imaging to further examine the neural mechanisms behind decision making across multiple populations.