Quick Bio

I grew up near Boston, MA and spent my free time tinkering with computers or engaged in photographic pursuits (I miss having a darkroom).  I received my BA in Psychology from Boston University in 2008, where I spent three years as an undergraduate researcher with Jarrett Rushmore and Antoni Valero-Cabre in the Cerebral Dynamics Laboratory in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Boston University Medical School.  My work at Boston University involved the development of a novel testing system for visuospatial attention; using this system, I performed experiments examining the effects of parietal TMS on visuospatial attention.  After graduating from Boston University in 2008, I moved to Nashville, TN and joined the Tong Lab at Vanderbilt University as the lab’s research assistant.

Research Interests

I am primarily interested in visual attention and how the effective use of attentive mechanisms allows us to interact with the world in a focused manner.  In terms of methodology, I am primarily focused on fMRI in conjunction with psychophysical testing as it provides a means by which we can non-invasively assess attentional effects in human observers.  My interest in attention has grown out of the question of how can we engage with a hugely complex world without continually losing focus - in essence, what allows us to go from an immense amount of sensory input to useful perceptual data.

It is my goal to enter a PhD program in the fall of 2010 to engage in research on this and other related topics.

Curriculum Vitae [pdf]