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. 

Resident

Tobias Brandon Atkin

Toby is a resident in Psychiatry.  Toby is a Moynihan fellow, supported by the Leon Levy Foundation.

Ph.D. Student

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. Student

Ines Aitsahalia

Ines is a PhD 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).

She is interested in computational models of reward-based learning, 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 to paint, learn about dinosaurs, and write jokes.   

Ph.D. Student

Deniz Yagmur Urey

Deniz is a PhD student in the Neurobiology and Behavior program. She's interested in building computational models for brain diseases. She received her BS in Biomedical Computation from Stanford University in 2024. 

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

Lab Manager / Master's Student

Stella Dong

Stella is a master's student in Computer Science. She is interested in the construction of computational models representative of human cognitive inference under complex environment.

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She received her BA in cognitive science from Barnard College.

In her free time, she enjoys to explore the city by feet, finding the next best cafe in town, and going thrift shopping with friends. She loves to express through creative endeavors such as writing and dancing.

Master's Student

Venkat Ramamoorthi

Venkat is a master’s student in computer science on the machine learning track. He also has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Columbia University. Venkat is interested in exploring how computation can be used to gain insights into the mind and how people learn.

In his spare time, Venkat likes to read and take long walks around the city.

Master's Student

Yuyan Bao

Yuyan is a master's student in Neuroscience and Education at Teachers College. He's interested in understanding how the brain implements cognitive processes, through fMRI and computational methods.

In his free time, he enjoys learning traditional Chinese dishes, with a special focus on Lu and Huaiyang cuisine. He's always happy to invite friends to try his cooking!

Master's Student

Millie Wu

Millie is a Master's student in Computer Science. 

Undergraduate Student

Yilin Chai

Yilin is a student at Barnard College. 

Undergraduate Student

Naira Altunkeser

Naira is a senior at Columbia College majoring in Neuroscience and Computer Science. She is interested answering questions in decision making and learning with a computational approach.

In her free time, Naira can be found; at live music events, doing photography, and looking for good Turkish coffee.