Elizabeth Redcay  

Elizabeth Redcay is an Associate Professor of Psychology and the director of the Developmental Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology and Cognitive Science from UCSD and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in MIT's Brain & Cognitive Sciences department before starting at UMD. CV

Yaqiong Xiao  

Yaqiong Xiao is a postdoctoral research associate in the Developmental Social Cognitive Neuroscience lab. Before joining the lab, she was a Ph.D. student in Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, and received her Ph.D. degree from Leipzig University in February 2017. In her thesis, she focused on brain development in preschool children and its relation to language processing and development using the resting-state fMRI technique. She currently aims to investigate the neural basis of social cognitive processes in typically and atypically developing children.

Santiago Morales Pamplona  

Santiago is a postdoctoral fellow at the Child Development Lab and a postdoc collaborator/affiliate in the Developmental Social Cognitive Neuroscience lab. He received his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University in 2017 under the mentorship of Kristin Buss and Koraly Pérez-Edgar. Santiago's research has focused on the development emotion, emotion regulation, and temperament in children by using psychophysiological, neurobiological, and behavioral measures. For instance, some of his work has examined what factors, such as how children process social information, help us determine which children develop socioemotional problems. Currently, he is studying the role of attention and motor activity in the emergence of social cognition though the mirror neuron program project grant.

Laura Anderson Kirby  

Laura Anderson is a Ph.D. student in Developmental and Clinical Psychology and a member of the DSCN Lab. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Duke University and completed a two-year fellowship in the Child Neuroscience Lab at the Yale Child Study Center prior to beginning graduate school. She is interested in pursuing research related to social communication in autism spectrum disorders using behavioral and neuroimaging methods with a focus on early development.

Dustin Moraczewski  

Dustin is a graduate student in the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science program and a member of the DSCN lab. He received his B.A. in Psychology and a B.F.A. in Music Performance from Marshall University. Prior to graduate school he worked as a group home manager for adults and a behavior therapist for foster children with autism and other developmental disabilities. He also worked in the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience lab at Florida International University. He is interested in exploring functional connectivity and network analysis of the developing social brain in typical individuals and those with autism.

Diana Alkire  

Diana is a graduate student in the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS) PhD program. She received a bachelor's degree in Psychology and a minor in Philosophy in 2012 from the University of Maryland, where she was a research assistant in the Maryland Child and Family Development Lab and the Maryland Psychotherapy Clinic and Research Lab. More recently, she worked as a full-time research assistant at the Center for the Study of Learning, a neuroimaging lab at Georgetown University that uses structural and functional MRI to study learning disabilities such as dyslexia. For her graduate studies, she is interested in exploring the neural correlates of social cognition in typical development, as well as in those with autism and social anxiety.

Sydney Maniscalco  

Sydney is the lab manager in the Developmental Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab. She received her B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior with a minor in Psychology from the University of California, Davis in 2016. During her time at UC Davis she worked as a research assistant in the Neurocognitive Development Lab studying both typically and atypically developing individuals using infrared eye tracking techniques. Her future plans are to go to graduate school to pursue a Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience.

Aiste Cechaviciute

Aiste is a technical assistant in the DSCN Lab. She is a post-baccalaureate, having graduate from Temple University in 2017 where she studied Neuroscience with a minor in Psychology. While at Temple, she worked as a research assistant at the Centre of Neural Decision Making (CNDM), where she studied the effects of emotion on temporal discounting. She is interested in cognition and decision making, and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Neuroscience or Cognitive Neuroscience in the future.

Erin Brine-Doyle

Erin is a post-baccalaureate in the lab, having received degrees in Psychology and Mathematics from the University of St. Thomas in 2017. She is interested in the neurology underlying psychological disorders, and hopes to study this at the doctoral level in the future.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Sabine Huber

Sabine is a junior and is pursuing a bachelors of science degree in psychology and a minor in neuroscience. She is also a research assistant at the Lab for Early Social Cognition, also within the UMD Psychology department. Additionally, Sabine is co-President for the Maryland Neuroscience Society. For her career, Sabine hopes to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology and eventually practice neuropsychology.

Zoey Maggid

Zoey is a junior pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Physiology and Neurobiology. She is also a member of the University Honors Program of the Honors College at the University of Maryland. After graduation, she hopes to attend medical school and become a pediatrician.

Hunter Rogoff

Hunter is a junior pursuing a major in Physiology and Neurobiology. After graduating, he plans on attending medical school, and hopes to ultimately become a health professional.

Tova Rosenthal

Tova Rosenthal is a junior pursuing a major in psychology with minors in neuroscience and human development.

Dylan Selbst

Dylan is a senior pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Physiology and Neurobiology. After graduating, he plans to attend medical school and pursue oncology.

Debbie Choi

Debbie is a senior pursuing a B.S. in Psychology. After graduating, she hopes to attend medical school and eventually become a pediatric neurologist.

Alexandra Hickey

Alexandra is a junior pursuing a B.S in psychology with a minor in neuroscience. After graduating, she hopes to attend graduate school and obtain a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

Sarah Rivas

Sarah Rivas is a sophomore pursuing a Bachelors in Neurobiology and Physiology. She is also a member of the Design, Cultures, and Creativity--a program in the Honors College. After receiving her B.A. she plans to attend medical school to become a neurosurgeon.

Matthew Kiely

Matt is a sophomore pursuing a Chemistry and Physiology and Neurobiology double degree. He is a member of the University Honors Program through the University of Maryland's Honors College, and he is also a member of the Mighty Sound of Maryland.

Ishan Shah

Alex Mangerian

Eleonora Sadikova

Morgan Biggs

Jazlyn Nketia

Meredith Pecukonis

Kate Rice Warnell

Liat Hotz

Joana Romero

Stephanie Goncalves

Alexis Pappadeas

Stephanie Golding

Lesley Sand

Jennifer Trinchere

Cashmire Norfleet

Katherine Calabrese

Helen Kong

Jessica Golding

Harrison Pierce

Eric Czinn

Tara Feld

Brogan Murphy

Eric Meyer

Toby Hamovitz

Lindsey Benjamin

Simren Kanwal

Ishaan Parikh

Brieana Viscomi

Daniel O'Young

Nina Lichtenberg

Ruth Ludlum

Jeremy Baker

Viviana Bauman

Shannon Coveney

Robert Cai