Washington State Neuroscientist Directory

As a dynamic and results-oriented professional with 12 years of experience in academic program management, strategic planning, and financial oversight, I excel in the seamless orchestration of operational aspects within nonprofit and higher education settings. My extensive background enables me to enhance operational efficiency, foster stakeholder relationships, and drive organizational...

I’m a cognitive scientist who studies human perceptual cognition: how people reason about and gain knowledge of the perceptual world. In doing so, I use a range of tools from psychology and neuroscience, including human behavioral methods, eye-tracking, and EEG. Most of my research aims to understand how people focus...

Osama Ahmed is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and a Weill Neurohub term assistant professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. He completed his Ph.D. training in neuroscience at UCSF and his postdoctoral training at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. His research interests span systems neuroscience, cognitive psychology,...

Dr. Lisa Akiyama is a board-certified pediatric neurologist who specializes in pediatric epilepsy. Dr. Akiyama’s goal in treating epilepsy and its comorbidities is to allow our children to live and enjoy their childhood to its fullest. She is dedicated to being a team with patients and their families on their...

Raima Amin, MD, is a board-certified neurologist specializing in movement disorders. Dr. Amin believes in patient-centered care and empowering her patients with knowledge about their condition to make the best health decisions. She has a special interest in caring for patients from underserved populations and empowering them with quality health...

Dr. Fritzie Arce-McShane is an Associate Professor in the Department of Oral Health Sciences (School of Dentistry) and Graduate Program in Neuroscience in the University of Washington. She is also an Affiliate Scientist in the Neuroscience Division of the Washington National Primate Research Center. She received her Bachelor of Science...

I have a BS in Computer Science (Penn State) and a PhD in Computation and Neural Systems (Caltech), where my PhD work focused on computer modeling of the visual cortex, neural coding and analog VLSI circuits. As a post-doc at New York University, I studied temporal dynamics in cortical motion...

Dr. Melissa Barker-Haliski is an associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Washington. She obtained a PhD in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Utah. She has led the identification and pharmacological characterization of a diversity of novel preclinical models for antiseizure drug discovery, with...

Dr. Barría is a Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and the Assistant Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Research and Graduate Education at the School of Medicine, University of Washington. He obtained his professional title of Biochemist (equivalent to a Master’s degree) and later earned his...

Clinical neurogenetisist at the UW interested in genetic neurological disorders

My research focuses on spontaneous activity in the developing hindbrain, driven by serotonin-driven deplarization. This activity may regulate the complement of serotonin neurons in the adult. I also am director of the Undergraduate Neuroscience Program, a capacity-constrained major at UW, where students learn the cellular, molecular, and system-based properties of...

Through my career I have focused on receptor signaling systems that control neural development early in life and drive neural degeneration when improperly regulated late in life. My present focus exploits human motor neurons generated by differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells to characterize mechanisms causing motor neuron diseases such...

Dr. Travis Brown is an Associate Professor in the Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience (IPN) department at Washington State University (WSU). As a neuroscientist, Dr. Brown specializes in using preclinical models in rodents to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying substance use disorders, eating disorders, and pain. The Brown lab employs a...

Michael received his BS in biology and his PhD in pharmacology from Creighton University in 2004 and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at the University of Washington, where he examined how neuromodulators like neuropeptides and monoamines impact stress, depression, and addiction. Dr. Bruchas’s laboratory focuses on how brain circuits are...

Bing Wen Brunton is currently a Professor of Biology and the Richard & Joan Komen University Chair at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, with affiliations at the eScience Institute for Data Science, the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and the Department of Applied Mathematics....

Dr. Bryant is a sensory neuroethologist and a parasitologist. She entered the fields of nematode neuroscience and parasitology as a postdoc in the lab of Dr. Elissa Hallem at UCLA. She received her B.A. in Biology from Bryn Mawr College, and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford University. Research in...

Beth Buffalo is a neuroscientist whose lab focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms that support learning and memory. Dr. Buffalo received a B.A. in Philosophy from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in Neurosciences from the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Buffalo joined the faculty at Emory University in 2005,...

The Cabernard lab is investigating asymmetric cell division (ACD), a process that generates cellular diversity. We are using Drosophila melanogaster neuroblasts, the neural stem cells in the fly as a model to study the molecular cell biology and mechanobiology of asymmetric stem cell division. We are interested in elucidating how...