Exploring non-invasive approaches to understanding the brain and diseases has been a research interest of mine since my undergraduate studies. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. During this time, I worked with Dr. Kenneth Tichauer to develop tissue-mimicking phantoms to validate the ADEPT cancer imager.

I then moved to Boston, MA, and worked at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging under the supervision of Dr. Bruce Fischl to study human brain mapping using high-resolution MRI and optical coherence tomography. Here, my interest in brain imaging grew through many hours of MRI scanning, data analysis, and learning the ins and outs of FreeSurfer.

In 2019, I packed my bags and moved to St. Louis, MO to begin my PhD in Imaging Science at Washington University. Under the supervision of Dr. Joseph Culver at the NeuroPhoto Lab, I work on developing and using ultra-high-density and high-density diffuse optical tomography systems to study brain development through early childhood and in adults with naturalistic stimuli. My thesis title is “Computational methods for naturalistic functional brain mapping using very-high density diffuse optical tomography”.