Laura Lewis is the Athinoula A. Martinos Associate Professor in IMES and EECS at MIT.  She is also an Associate Faculty Member at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital, a Principal Investigator in the Research Laboratory of Electronics, and an Affiliate Member of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. She received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from MIT, conducted postdoctoral research as a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows, and was previously an Assistant Professor at Boston University. She is the recipient of the Society for Neuroscience Peter and Patricia Gruber International Research Award, the One Mind Rising Star Award, the 1907 Trailblazer Award, the Sloan Fellowship, the Searle Scholar Award, the McKnight Scholar Award, and the Pew Biomedical Scholar Award.

Administrative Assistant: Pearl Nelson-Greene, pearlng@mit.edu

Ewa is a cognitive and sleep neuroscientist who earned her PhD at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. Her doctoral research focused on elucidating medial frontal cortex mechanisms underlying cognitive control using simultaneous EEG–fMRI. She is also interested in the neural basis of local sleep phenomena in awake individuals. In the Lewis Lab, her current research aims to characterize brainstem and hypothalamic activity underlying drowsiness in healthy participants and patients with central disorders of hypersomnolence using ultra-high-field (7T) fMRI.

Len received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Behavior from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In his dissertation work, he used EEG, machine learning, and computational modeling to show how short-term synaptic depression contributes to the temporal parsing of perceptual information, making new stimuli more salient by suppressing the neural response to repeated stimuli. Now, he is particularly interested in deep learning applications to neuroscience and memory consolidation during sleep.

Danlei received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Northeastern University focusing on the functional involvement of the human brainstem in cognition using ultra-high field fMRI. Her general interest is in investigating whole-brain neural dynamics that regulate the autonomic systems over time, especially during different levels of arousal. Currently, she uses fast, high-resolution neuroimaging, measures in both central and peripheral physiology, and computational approaches to explore the relationship between changes in BOLD signals, cerebrospinal fluid flow, and peripheral physiological patterns across a spectrum of arousal states.

Merel has a background in Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience and Dementia studies. She earned her Ph.D. at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, where she applied high-field MRI to study the brain’s waste clearance system in relation to Alzheimer’s disease. At MIT, in the Lewis Lab, she now investigates this system during wakefulness and sleep using EEG and diffusion MRI. Her work is supported by the Dutch Alzheimer Society (Alzheimer Nederland).

Dragana has a background in biomedical engineering and cognitive neuroscience. She completed her PhD at the Paris Brain Institute, where she used multimodal neuroimaging and machine learning to investigate states and disorders of consciousness, followed by a postdoctoral position studying local sleep-like activity during sleep deprivation. At MIT, in the Lewis Lab, she studies sleep-wake regulation in humans using multimodal neuroimaging (high-field fMRI, EEG, physiological signals) combined with novel AI methods. She is supported by the MIT-Novo Nordisk Artificial Intelligence postdoctoral fellows program.

Adiya earned a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh, where she investigated how inhibitory neurons influence network activity and regulate cerebral blood flow. Using multiphoton and optical imaging techniques alongside EEG recordings in mice, she examined brain activity while selectively manipulating neuronal subpopulations with optogenetics and chemogenetics. Now, as a postdoctoral researcher in the Lewis Lab, Adiya aims to integrate fNIRS and fMRI to explore how neuromodulatory nuclei shape neurovascular coupling in the cortex and across the brain.

Zinong Yang is currently a graduate student in the Graduate Program for Neuroscience at Boston University. She graduated from the University of California San Diego in 2017 with a B.S. in Cognitive Neuroscience and a minor in Philosophy. During her undergraduate years, she worked as a research assistant studying visual long-term memory and testing new P300 speller. After graduating, she spent two years as a lab assistant investigating the role of gamma synchronization and cross-frequency interaction in working memory. Her research interests include signal processing and multi-scale neuroscience. 

Sydney is a PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She received her BS in Biomedical Engineering at George Washington University in 2019 where she participated in research related to infrared imaging for breast cancer detection. Her interests include signal processing, functional brain connectivity, and the study of neurodegenerative diseases.

Makaila Banks is a student in the graduate program for neuroscience at Boston University. She received her B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of Rochester as a McNair Scholar. During her undergraduate years she researched attention modulation of the primate visual system, temporal vision processing in humans, and reward system circuitry in mice. Her research interests include investigating how respiratory patterns can alter neural dynamics and how this can be used to improve cognition, specifically in humans with psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression.

Baarbod has a background in computational modeling, physics-informed deep learning, and biophysics. He obtained a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Florida International University in 2019, while doing research on neurovascular coupling mechanisms in Dr. Nikolaos Tsoukias’s Biotransport lab. He obtained a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University doing research in the Lewis lab at MIT. His research in the Lewis lab involved developing quantitative fMRI methods for measuring cerebrospinal fluid flow both in the macroscale compartments like the ventricles as well as much smaller scales such as perivascular spaces. Additionally, he is developing an MRI framework for improved temporal precision in fMRI measurements. Aside from brain research, he enjoys cooking, soccer, video games, and hiking.

Stephanie is a PhD student in the Brain, Behavior, and Cognition program. She received a BA in Neuroscience from the University of Chicago, where she worked in the Awh-Vogel lab investigating interactions between attention and working memory. Her research interests include understanding the relationship between neural activity, systemic physiology, blood flow, and cerebrospinal fluid flow across different arousal states. She is also interested in understanding the antidepressant effects of sleep deprivation therapy for individuals with depression. Her research is supported by an NDSEG fellowship.  

Trang is a Ph.D. student in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences program at MIT. She received her B.A. in Biochemistry and Math from Mount Holyoke College, where she worked on research related to protein misfolding in neurodegenerative diseases. After graduation, she worked as a research assistant studying dendritic contributions to cortical computations in mice and humans. Her current interests include aging, neuromodulation, and brain-body interactions.

Harrison Fisher is a PhD student in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Boston University. He received his undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and Math from Bowdoin College in 2017. Between Bowdoin and BU, Harrison worked as a research technologist in the Napadow Lab at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, using functional connectivity analyses of fMRI data to explore the effects of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation and gut-brain interaction functional dyspesia. His research interests include signal processing, computational modeling, and studying interactions between physiology and neural signals.

Gabby is a PhD student in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science program at MIT. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2024 with B.S. from the Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science Departments, as well as an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering. Previously, she worked with Dr. Adam Charles in the Neural Signals and Computation Lab at JHU, where she worked with evaluating and improving spike deconvolution algorithms for calcium neural signal imaging. Gabby’s research interest is in using computational techniques to extract biological relevance from neuroimages, and she is currently investigating the predictability of CSF flow from EEG.

Aaron is a PhD student in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science program at MIT. He obtained B.S. from University of California, San Diego in 2020 with in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He also received M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2023 before coming to Boston. Aaron's past experiences span both hardware and computational research for neuroscience. He previously worked with Dr. Maysam Chamanzar at CMU to create automated propagation loss characterization system for optical neural probes. Afterwards, he worked with Dr. Michele Insanally at University of Pittsburgh to study the synaptic origin of behavioral flexibility through spiking RNN models. Aaron aims to combine both hardware and software research to improve neuromodulation in humans, and he is currently working on refining stimulation algorithm for slow wave sleep.

Erin is an MEng student in the Department of EECS. She received her BS from MIT with a double major in Artificial Intelligence & Decision Making and Brain & Cognitive Science. She is interested in machine learning applications to neuroscience. Her projects with the Lewis Lab include applying machine learning to fMRI data to automatically segment cerebrospinal fluid inflow signal, and to predict arousal state transitions in the ascending arousal network.

Amelia is a PhD student in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology. After receiving her B.S. in Biopsychology from UC Santa Barbara, she worked as a research assistant processing and analyzing PET data for clinical dementia research at UC San Francisco. Her current research is focused on quantifying brain tissue motion and its relationship to cerebrospinal fluid flow using motion-encoded MRI. She is co-advised by Dr. Jonathan Polimeni at Stanford University.

Kyra is currently a PhD student in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2025 with both a BS and MSE in Biomedical Engineering. Her previous work includes studying alternative exon splicing in neurodegenerative conditions and brain network modeling to analyze the interaction between cognitive effort and early seizure termination. Kyra’s current research interests include multimodal neuroimaging with a focus on brain energetics and neural mechanisms sustaining attention and cognitive performance under resource-constrained conditions.

Sarah is a PhD student in the Medical Engineering and Medical Physics program at Harvard/MIT. She obtained her MPhil in Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge (2025), where she studied MR techniques for Deuterium Metabolic Imaging under Dr. Chris Rodgers, supported by the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She earned her BA in physics and biology from Colgate University (2024), where she conducted research on the synchronization dynamics of Josephson Junction neurons under Dr. Ken Segall. Her research in the Lewis Lab investigates the impact of endocrine transitions across the female lifespan on cerebrovascular health and glymphatic clearance mechanisms. Outside of research she enjoys running, lacrosse and yoga.

Courtney Zambello is the Lab Manager in the Lewis Lab. She received her Master of Public Health from Boston University with a concentration in Program Management. She was a scholar athlete at Merrimack College and graduated with a B.S. in Health Sciences and as a Board-Certified Athletic Trainer. She previously worked as a Triage Specialist at Boston University in the Heathway Division and as the Head Athletic Trainer at Pembroke High School, specializing in concussion protocols. Courtney currently volunteers for the World Health Organization assisting in generating a user-friendly database regarding drug pricing transparency on the global scale.

Brandon recently graduated from Dartmouth College, where he studied cognitive science with a focus on human cooperation. He conducted research at the PhilLab on causal reasoning using online game theory studies and physics simulations, and he wrote his thesis at the SCRAP Lab on social signal prediction using machine learning techniques. Brandon hopes to pursue clinical psychology and study methods that allow practitioners to predict the most effective treatment for a patient. Broadly, he is interested in learning more signal processing, machine learning, and brain state transitions.

Alejandra recently graduated from Brown University with a double major in Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience. She completed her undergraduate honors thesis on the development of hormone-responsive endometrial organoids. She previously interned at the Lewis Lab under MIT's Summer Research Program (MSRP), where she investigated sex differences in cerebrospinal fluid flow dynamics during aging. Ale also interned at the MIT Media Lab, where she worked on ultrasound-responsive wearable devices for women's health. Overall, she is deeply passionate about women's health and neuroscience and is interested in exploring this intersection further. As a Clinical Research Coordinator, Ale seeks to deepen her proficiency in neuroimaging techniques to study coupled neural dynamics and brain connectivity in relation to sleep, neurodegeneration, and women's health, and to gain experience working with human subjects on the lab's projects.