Meet The Team

Principal Investigator

Kiyohito (Kyo) Iigaya

Kyo Iigaya is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University. He is also affiliated with Neurobiology and Behavior Program, Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, and Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute.   

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Kyo received his Ph.D. from the Physics Department and the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Columbia (thesis advisor: Stefano Fusi). Kyo was a postdoc at University College London (the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit and the Max Planck Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing. advisor: Peter Dayan, Ray Dolan) and Caltech (advisor: John O'Doherty). ​

Kyo likes to eat, travel, and eat.  

Research Center Coordinator

Bahar Selimbeyoglu

Bahar is a Research Center Coordinator at the C3N. Bahar received her Ph.D. in Biotechnology at Yeditepe University in Turkey. She has also worked at CNRS, Paris-Saclay University, and as a postdoctoral researcher in the Human Brain Project at the Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes, Faculté de Médecine, France.

Bahar's research focuses on unique structural and functional variability, including atrophies, dysconnectivity, adaptations in network and hemispheric asymmetries. She is especially interested in distinguishing between these patterns in healthy aging and neurodegenerative disorders and exploring the causality between observations in resting state. 

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Bahar likes kibbeh.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Pradyumna Sepúlveda

Prady is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychiatry. He received a Biotech Engineering degree and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Pontificia Universidad Catolica in Chile and later an M.Sc. in Neuroscience from King's College London.  He completed his Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London under the supervision of Benedetto De Martino.

His research interest is how healthy, and clinical populations make choices that flexibly adapt to countless goals and contexts.  

Prady likes to explore the city by cycling, running, walking, or imagining it.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Matt Schafer

Matthew is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychiatry, in the labs of Kyo Iigaya and Guillermo Horga.

He received his PhD in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine under the supervision of Dr. Daniela Schiller.

His research is on abstraction and memory, in social interaction and in delusions.    

In his personal life, Matthew likes to have fun and win at things. 

Ph.D. Candidate

Adithya Gungi

Adithya is a Ph.D. student in the Physics department and has an Integrated M.Sc in Physics from IIT Bombay in Mumbai, India, and an MA in Physics from Stony Brook University.

They received the SfN Trainee Professional Development Award in 2023. 

Adithya loves to read, and is on a quest to find the best dollar pizza place in NYC as a connoisseur of street food.

Ph.D. Candidate

Ines Aitsahalia

Ines is a Ph.D. student in the Neurobiology and Behavior Program at Columbia University in the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience. Ines is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP) award. She was selected as a finalist for the 2025 Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching

She is interested in computational models of causal attribution, and incorporating neurodiversity and disability justice into psychiatric research.    

She received her BA from Princeton University, working with Professor Yael Niv.    

In her spare time, she loves learning about dinosaurs.

Ph.D. Student

Deniz Yagmur Urey

Deniz is a PhD student in the Neurobiology and Behavior program at Columbia University. She’s building computational models for the neural computations in decision-making circuits.

She is supported by the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship.

She received her BS in Engineering from Stanford University in 2024.

Deniz loves acting in theater, convincing people to go visit Istanbul, and the color pink! 

Ph.D Student

Sienna Bruinsma

Sienna is a Ph.D. student in the Neurobiology and Behavior program. She received her BA in Psychology at U.C. Berkeley and worked with Dr. Matt Nassar at Brown University. 

She is broadly interested in the behavioral, computational, and neural mechanisms that shape individuals' representations in uncertain contexts and how these representations drive downstream learning and decision-making processes.

In her free time, Sienna loves to engage in any type of exploratory behavior, whether it comes to food, traveling, the arts, or just roaming around in nature.

Master's Student

Senna Kim

Senna is a masters student in the Biostatistics program. She received her BS in Quantitative Science Studies of Psychology at Emory University. She is interested in computational methods for understanding decision making processes and cognitive mechanisms.

In her free time, Senna likes to walk around the city to spot dogs out on their walks, or go to the gym.

Master's Student

Michael Baranda

Michael is an MS student in Social Work specializing in Advanced Clinical Practice and a member of the Evidence-Based Practice Project funded by the New York State Office of Mental Health. He is currently a social work intern at Brooklyn Defender Services and is an upcoming intern at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

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Drawing on his undergraduate background in biology and health science, Michael is interested in how social, behavioral, and neural mechanisms during child development shape decision-making processes in adulthood.

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Outside the lab, you can find Michael searching for the best sunset-viewing spots around the city and enjoying an iced honey-cinnamon vanilla oat latte.

Research Assistant

Isabel Enriquez

Isabel is the lab manager and works as a research coordinator for the lab's R01 study. 

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She received her B.S. in Psychobiology from UCLA and received highest departmental honors with her senior thesis. She is generally interested in reward learning and memory. 

In her free time, Isabel likes to make jewelry, sew her own clothing, and soak up sunshine in the park. 

Undergraduate Student

Caiqi Li

Caiqi is a student at Barnard College majoring in Neuroscience and Art History. She is interested in using computational approaches to study decision-making and cognitive processes.

If not at the lab, Caiqi can likely be found gallery hopping, baking, or checking off her Beli list.

Undergraduate Student

Theresa Yu

Theresa is a junior at Columbia College studying Philosophy and Mathematics. She is interested in mechanisms underlying decision-making and causal learning processes, as well as their interdisciplinary implications in philosophy.

In her spare time, Theresa loves to read, try new restaurants, and shop.