Ryan Merlin

Ryan is a PhD student with a concentration in Positive Organizational Psychology and focus on leadership and entrepreneurship.

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Laura Beavin

Laura is a 4th year student pursuing her PhD in Cognitive Psychology.  Her research interest include behavioral genetics and neurochemicals associated with mate choice.  She is also interested in the genetic and neural components of psychopathy.

Veronika Alexander

Veronika is a doctoral student in Economics. Her research interests include neuroeconomics, behavioral economics, game theory, and human productivity.

Kenneth Pyle

Kenneth is a fourth year doctoral student in Economics & Political Science. His research interests include neuroeconomics, political economy, behavioral economics, and game theory, as well as ways to apply current research to organizations. Before returning to pursue his degree, he founded a beverage company and was a vice president in the music industry.

Elizabeth Terris

Elizabeth is a PhD Student in Applied Cognitive Psychology. Her research interests include the cognitive neuroscience with an emphasis on impulsivity and decision making.

Amos Nadler

Amos is a doctoral student studying the biological basis of decision making, behavioral finance, entrepreneurialism, and other areas of behavioral endocrinology. He has a background in marketing, public relations, branding, and organizational development.

Naomi Sparks

Naomi is a 3rd year PhD student in Cognitive Psychology. Her research focuses on two areas within neuroeconomics: intertemporal choice and neuromarketing, utilizing hormone manipulations. She studies how oxytocin and testosterone influence impulse buying and people's responses to advertisements. Naomi is also the Research Manager at SalesBrain (www.salesbrain.com), a neuromarketing company.

Patrick Williams

Patrick is a 4th year PhD Student in Cognitive Psychology.  His research interests include visiospatial skills training, and decision making neuroscience.

Anthony Gonzalez

Anthony is a masters student in economics. His research interests include neuroeconomics and finance. His academic background is in business administration, financial engineering, and applied mathematics.

Brianne Donaldson

Brianne is a 2nd year doctoral student in Philosophy of Religion.  Her research at CNS is aimed at exploring the role of compassion toward animals in restructuring power dynamics in political, economic and social structures of Western society as well as the neurobiological foundations of an ecological mind.

Denise Grosberg

Denise is a Ph.D. student in Applied Developmental Psychology.  Her research interests include speech, language, social skills, and attachment processes related to both typical child development and in children with autism.

Vanessa Kettering

Vanessa is a 2nd year student in the Positive Developmental Psychology program with an emphasis in health promotion and optimal human development. Her research interests center around the role of oxytocin as a mediating factor in encouraging social connectedness, compassion and perceptions of in-group membership.

Blake Horridge

Blake is a PhD student in the School of Religion. His research interests are focused around the science and religion conversation, particularly in the pedagogical techniques used in teaching in this controversial area and the physiological mechanisms behind belief. His background is in Chemistry and Forensic Science.

Giti Zahedzadeh

Giti is a third year doctoral student interested in determinants of behavior in both normal and pathological conditions, the neural bases of emotion regulation, and roles of awareness and attention in decision making. Fundamental interest is elucidating the brain mechanisms that translate beliefs and expectations into particular behaviors. In addition, her intersts are in how and to what extent do unconscious neural computations influence utlimate conscious decisions and behhaviors.

Jafar Soltanzadeh

Jafar is a second year PhD student interested in Neuromarketing, Nueroendocrinology of Music Affection, Neurofinance, and Neuroscience of Organizational Behavior. He has a research background in Environmental Economics and Political Economics.

Peiran Jiao

Peiran Jiao is a PhD student in Economics. His research interests include behavioral and neuro economics/finance, experimental economics, investors' decision making and microfoundations.

Jesse Bettinger

Jesse is a PhD. Candidate, School of Politics and Economics -- School of Religion. His research interests include the biological underpinnings of volitional agency in fronto-subcortical circuitry, moral intuition, neurovisceral connectivity, and the role of Von Economo neurons in social cognition and decision making. In addition, peripheral research interests include the biological basis for scaffolding successful group and team dynamics and effective strategies for optimal human management.