Principal Investigator
David M. Smith, PhD
David M. Smith is a Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. He received his PhD in Psychology from The University of Illinois in 2001 under Michael Gabriel, and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Washington with Sheri Mizumori. He is a recipient of the Stephen H. Weiss Junior Fellowship Teaching Award and heads The Laboratory of Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.
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Current Members
Hamid Turker, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Hamid studies the cognitive, computational, and neurobiological basis of how attention, memory, and control systems acquire structured knowledge about a semi-structured world and how that knowledge, subsequently, guides the deployment of those same systems. This is a tricky process given that these systems are limited and fallible. To investigate how the mind nevertheless manages this to produce adaptive behavior, Hamid employs a range of tools: from fMRI, EEG, and pupillometry (in humans), to electrophysiology (in rodents), and computational modeling (in always-too-slow computers). He joined the Smith lab after receiving a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Leiden University in the Netherlands and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. In his spare time, he enjoys playing guitar. CV
Wen-Yi Wu, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Wen-Yi is interested in the neural basis of prosocial behavior, oxytocin and vasopressin. She investigates the neural mechanism of empathy-like prosocial behaviors of the rats and is also interested in the neurophysiological substrates of social and spatial representation in the rodent brain. CV
Julia (Dahae) Jun
Graduate Student
Julia is interested in the role of the prefrontal cortex in memory retrieval. She received her B.S. from Stony Brook University, where she worked with Dr. Ryan Parsons investigating neurobiological mechanisms of learning and memory using Pavlovian fear conditioning. Julia is currently investigating the differential role of the subregions of the medial prefrontal cortex in retrieving target memories and connections with other regions such as the anterior olfactory nucleus. She is using a variety of techniques, including chemogenetic and optogenetic manipulations.
Emily Li (Shiping)
Graduate Student
Emily received her B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and her M.S. from Boston University, both majors in Psychology. She is currently interested in studying the functions of retrosplenial cortex.
Dev Laxman Subramanian
Graduate Student
Dev is studying the spatial information encoding properties in the hippocampus and the retrosplenial cortex. Specifically, he analyzes the electrophysiological data collected using micro-drive arrays from the rat brain during spatial navigation tasks in a couple of different environments (Open field box foraging & continuous T-maze spatial alternation). His analyses are focused on understanding the similarities and differences in the spatial encoding properties in the hippocampus and the retrosplenial cortex at both individual neuron and population activity levels. He hopes that understanding the various methods of information encoding properties that the brain uses will provide us with insights into the neural algorithms that can have potential uses in advancing Artificial intelligence. In his free time, Dev likes to hike, spend time in nature, watch sports, and plays cricket for Cornell. CV
Wendy Yang
Graduate Student
Wendy is exploring the role that the anterior thalamus plays in hippocampal representations. She received her BS in Psychology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she worked with Dr. Justin Rhodes on the exercise-brain interactions. She is interested in learning about how various neural substrates are involved in the learning and memory circuits.
Marta Reales-Moreno
Visiting Graduate Student
Marta studies the structure and function of the frontal lobe and how this can determine mental health in psychiatry. She received her Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Girona (UdG) and joined Smith’s lab as part of her doctoral program. Currently, Marta works on the role of the medial prefrontal cortex in cognitive processes like memory, including the use of optogenetic techniques.
Anthony Coffin-Schmitt
Research Technician
Anthony assists Dr. Smith and other lab members with experiments, building microdrives and other devices for neurophysiological recordings, and rodent care and training. He previously worked in a bioinformatics research lab at UMass Medical School. Outside the lab, he enjoys going on hikes, exploring around Ithaca, and spending time with family.
Jiarui (Ray) Fang
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Ray is a junior majoring in Biological Sciences and Biometry & Statistics. He is interested in the neural basis of learning and memory. Meanwhile, he is dedicated to applying computational skills to Biology research. Outside of research, he is an active member of the Cornell Red Cross and a PC Gamer.
Molly Flanagan
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Molly is a junior studying Biological Sciences with a concentration in Animal Physiology. She is interested in memory retrieval, decision making, and the neural mapping of the brain. Outside of the lab, she enjoys volunteering her time to work with both small animals and dairy cattle, and is an active member of several club sports teams on campus.
Lizbeth Genao
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Lizbeth is a senior majoring in Psychology. She is interested in what makes our memory good and the neural substrates behind everyday behaviors such as recalling memories, learning, paying attention, and so on. Outside of the lab, she enjoys spending time with family and roller skating.
Lilyanna Gross
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Lilyanna is a senior Psychology major and Cognitive Science minor. She would like to understand how sensation is translated into perception. Specifically, the anatomy and physiology of all sensory systems (taste, touch, smell, sight, sound, proprioception), and how a broad range of cognitive or environmental factors may influence the translation of sensation into perception. Additionally, she wants to understand how certain cognitive processes, i.e., attention and memory, can influence our general cognitive abilities and processing power and efficiency.
Jeffrey Ho
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Jeffrey is a sophomore studying human development with a minor in business. He is fascinated by the base neurobiological and neurochemical interactions that inform higher-level processes such as memory and thinking. He is specifically interested in the neuronal mechanisms by which memory is represented. Outside the lab, he is involved in Red Cross, iGEM and Cornell Healthcare Review.
Alexandra Hodder
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Alex is a senior studying Biological Sciences with a concentration in Neurobiology and Behavior. She is interested in learning how contextual memories are represented in different regions of the brain. Outside of the lab, she is involved in One Love Cornell and Cornell Health International.
Timothy Johnson
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Tim is a sophomore studying Cognitive Science. He is interested in the mechanisms by which memories are encoded and represented. Outside of the lab, he is involved in the Cornell Undergraduate Research Board, Cornell Healthcare Review, and Cornell Undergraduate Research Journal.
Benjamin Lederman
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Ben is a senior majoring in Psychology and triple minoring in Biology, Theatre, and European Studies. He is interested in the neural basis of emotional expressiveness and how emotions are associated with encoded memories. Outside of research, he serves as a Co-Executive Coordinator of EARS and, in his spare time, enjoys bowling and playing board games.
Audrey Liu
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Audrey is a sophomore studying Biological Sciences and concentrating in Neurobiology and Behavior. She is interested in the neural circuits and biochemical mechanisms involved in sensory processing, as well as how they translate to learning and memory. In her spare time, she enjoys composing music and dancing.
Aerin Mok
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Aerin is a sophomore majoring in Psychology on a pre-med track and minoring in Anthropology. She is interested in the neural signaling behind reward and punishment processing and in the use of neurochemical inactivating agents to modulate biochemical pathways. Outside of research, she is an EARS Peer Mentor and a volunteer at the Mental Health Association of Tompkins County.
Rebecca Shannon
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Rebecca is a senior majoring in Human Biology, Health and Society. She is interested in the neural basis of contextual influences on memory interference, emotional experiences and behavioral responses. Outside of research, she is involved in College Mentors for Kids as well as Elderly Partnership.
Aditya Vinodh
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Aditya Vinodh is a junior double majoring in Cognitive Science and Psychology and minoring in Data Science. His interests include examining the neural circuits of cognition and behavior, and applying our understanding of the human brain to integrate AI and behavioral science. He is also a member of the Shadmehr Lab for Motor Control at Johns Hopkins and aims to pursue a career in Computational Neuroscience.Outside the lab, he leads Spicmacay’s Cornell Chapter (for South Asian Arts and Culture), is an undergraduate language consultant for the ITAP program, plays the Indian classical violin, and loves running/working out.
Sam Vucic
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Sam is a senior majoring in psychology and minoring in philosophy. He is interested in the neurochemistry of depression and generalized anxiety, in addition to the impairment of learning and memory which often accompanies depressed and anxious mood. Outside of research, he is a dedicated mental health worker at Ithaca Family and Children’s Services, an avid aerobic athlete, and a great admirer of French literature.
Izzy Wu
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Izzy is a junior majoring in Psychology. She is interested in the neural basis of psychological disorders (especially generalized anxiety and depression) and its relationship with memory impairment. Outside of research, Izzy is involved in Cornell American Red Cross as well as a member of the Chinese Student Association.
Lab Alumni
Former Postdoctoral Researchers
David Bulkin, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate – 2010-2015
Dave Bulkin is interested in how populations of neurons work together to support rich and complex behavior and hippocampal context representations. He was awarded the NARSAD Young Investigator Postdoctoral Fellow and went on as a Research Associate in the Melissa R. Warden laboratory at Cornell University. For more information, see his CV.
Lindsey Vedder, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate – 2012-2014
Lindsey is a neurophysiologist interested how the hippocampus may interact with other brain regions for normal learning and memory processes. In the Smith lab, Lindsey investigated the relationship between the retrosplenial cortex and hippocampus during goal directed learning and memory. She went on to Binghamton University as a Postdoc and then as a Research Assistant Professor.
Patrick Gill, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate – 2011
Patrick is an electrophysiologist and theorist interested in the ways neurons wire together to perform behaviorally-relevant tasks. He is especially interested in the neurocircuitry involved in the acquisition of expertise. As a post-doc in our lab, Patrick worked on multiple simultaneous tetrode recordings from the hippocampus and retrosplenial cortex of rats learning an auditory cued task, and also published work on Hippocampal Episode Fields (PDF).
Former Graduate Students
Norma Hernandez
MS Student – 2019
Norma researched the anterior olfactory nucleus and ventral hippocampus roles in retrieval of contextually cued memory. She went on to be the lab manager of the Burwell Laboratory of Memory and Attention at Brown University. Thesis: Memory Retrieval Mechanisms in Context-dependent and Categorization Memory Tasks.
Adam Miller, PhD
Ph.D. Student – 2017
Adam researched systems-level changes during the learning process, and in the contributions of long-term memory to new learning. He went on as a Postdoc in the Frankland Lab at the University of Toronto. Thesis: The Role of the Retrosplenial Cortex in Spatial Cognition.
Gregory Peters, PhD
PhD Student – 2016
Greg examined the role of the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex in a task already known to involve the hippocampus. Thesis: Contributions of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex to Managing Memory and Resolving Mnemonic Interference.
Rachel Swanson
MS Student – 2015
Rachel conducted research on the functional contributions made by the retrosplenial cortex and the oscillatory co-activity across time in the hippocampus, retrosplenial cortex, and anterior thalamus. She went on to a Neuroscience PhD program at New York University. Thesis: Temporal and Spatial Coordination of the Hippocampus, Retrosplenial Cortex, and Anterior Thalamus.
Matthew Law, PhD
PhD Student – 2014
Matt graduated with a PhD after completing work on the limbic learning and memory system with a focus on the anterior thalamic nuclei. He went on as a Postdoc at the Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Thesis: Contextual Learning In The Limbic Memory Circuit.
Orriana Sill
MS Student – 2013
Orriana graduated with a masters degree after conducting a series of experiments on the role of the hippocampus in episodic memory. She went on to work as a data analyst. Thesis: Neurogenesis Dependent Learning And Implications For Episodic Memory In Rodent Models.
Former Undergraduate Researcher Assistants
Sabrina Giaimo
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2022
Sabrina worked with graduate student Julia Jun, investigating the role of the prefrontal cortex. She plans on pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology.
Zichen (Cleo) He
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2022
Zichen (Cleo) worked on the comparative roles of the retrosplenial cortex, the hippocampus, and the anterior thalamus in spatial learning and memorization. She went on to a Psychology & Neuroscience Ph.D. program at Duke University.
Megan Spurney
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2021
Megan investigated the anterior nucleus of thalamus using chemogenetics. She went on to work at the NIH Intramural Research Program with a team studying fMRI and plans on applying to graduate programs.
Taylor Vail
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2021
Taylor studied the anterior nucleus of thalamus with behavioral task experiments using optogenetics. She went on to work as a Psychiatric Research Assistant at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and plans on later attending medical school.
Chiara Alvisi
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2020
Chiara investigated the ventral hippocampus and anterior olfactory nucleus in context and olfactory integration using optogenetics and chemogenetics. She went on to work as a healthcare consultant.
Samantha Rabinovich
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2020
Samantha assisted graduate students on their research. She plans on investigating Alzheimer’s disease before attending medical school.
Kimaya Raje
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2020
Kimaya completed her honors thesis titled, “The Role of the Ventral Hippocampus and the Anterior Olfactory Nucleus in Context and Olfactory Integration” and went on as a MD-PhD candidate at the University of Cincinnati.
Eunice Yiu
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2020
Eunice completed her honors thesis titled, “The Relationship between Spatial Occupancy Time and Firing Patterns of Hippocampal CA1 Neurons in Response to Changes in the Social Context”. She went on as a PhD student in Psychology at UC Berkeley.
Pete Rigas
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2019
Pete worked on neurological data analysis, methods, and programming in the lab. He went on as a master’s student in Applied Statistics at Cornell University.
Josh Dobbin
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2017
Josh completed an honors thesis titled “The Role of the Ventral Hippocampus and Anterior Olfactory Nucleus in Contextually Cued Odor Discrimination” and was awarded the Magna Cum Laude level of honors. He went on to work as a research assistant at the Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at The Rockefeller University.
Betsy Hurtado
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2017
Betsy performed memory tasks with olfactory discrimination in various contexts to identify changes in neuronal response patterns and specifically associate them with learning impairments. She went on to work in clinical research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Cancer.
Lindsay Rait
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2017
Lindsay conducted experiments exploring the role of the hippocampus and olfactory system in the memory process with contextual odor discrimination tasks. She also mentored high school students interested in research. She went on to a Psychology PhD program at the University of Oregon.
Sherry Shi
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2017
Sherry worked on a retrosplenial cortex tasks project with a graduate student.
Anna Serrichio
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2016
Anna completed an honors thesis on the role of the retrosplenial cortex in spatial learning and navigation. She loves skiing and dancing. She may also love language as she went on to get a masters in Speech and Language Pathology from Columbia University.
Calvin Fang
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2015
Calvin completed an honors thesis on extracellular recordings in the prefrontal cortex of rats in relation to behavioral inhibition. He went on as a NIH Postbac. Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) program and is now a MD-PhD candidate at Yale University focusing in Neuroscience.
Jacob Frith
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2015
Jacob was a Human Development major concentrating in behavioral neuroscience and went on to work in business development in Boston.
Marc Harrison
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2015
Marc was listed as a co-author on a paper looking at retrosplenial cortical neuron encoding. He went on to work as a research assistant at the USC Laboratory of Neuroimaging and is now a Psychology PhD student at Stanford University.
Jason Li
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2015
Jason completed an honors thesis on the role of the RSC during a delay memory task. He is off doing less important things now like studying medicine at Georgetown University.
Sophia Ramos
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2015
Sophia was a Human Development major with a double concentration on human neuroscience and personality development. She went on to medical school at UCLA.
David (Keunhyung) Yu
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2015
David co-authored three poster presentations while working with graduate student Adam Miller on retrosplenial cortical neural populations and spatial memory. He went on to a MPH at Columbia University.
Cara Berkowitz
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2014
Cara completed an honors thesis on the distinct roles of the infralimbic and prelimbic regions of the medial prefrontal cortex in support of memory retrieval. She went on medical school at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Luke Grosvenor
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2014
Luke conducted an honors thesis on the role of the anterior thalamus in contextual fear learning. He went on as a NIH Intramural Research Training Award Fellow and is now in a mental health PhD program at John Hopkins University.
Madison Marcus
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2014
Madison completed an honors thesis investigating discrimination learning in the rat prefrontal cortex. An example of her published work can be downloaded here (PDF). She went on to law school at the University of Virginia.
William Mau
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2014
William completed an honors thesis on the development of spatial and reward-related neural responses in the RSC during learning. He went on to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience at Boston University.
Sarah Parauda
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2014
Sarah investigating the role of the retrosplenial cortex input in support of hippocampal memory representations. She went on to medical school at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and then a neurology residency.
Athena Shea
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2014
Athena conducted maze experiments to analyze roles of the hippocampus and retrosplenial cortex in spatial memory formation. She went on to work as an analyst and consultant in New York.
Carly Britton
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2013
Carly completed an honors thesis and worked on a study investigating hippocampal population dynamics during an odor discrimination task. She went on to a masters in science writing at John Hopkins University.
Sam Levy
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2013
Sam conducted early pilot experiments of a within-subject rodent model of the RIF phenomenon. He is currently in the Neuroscience PhD program at Boston University.
Leela Patel
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2013
Leela investigated hippocampal population drift over time both within and between environmental contexts. She went on to volunteer with AmeriCorps and later attended Tufts Medical School.
Jennifer Lieberman
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2012
Jennifer assisted on behavioral experiments studying contextual interference learning. She went on as Staff Research Associate at UC Davis and then as a lab manager at Columbia University.
Jina Lim
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2012
Jina researched the role of the anterior thalamus in a contextual-based odor list learning task with rats and examined the function of the anterior thalamus with temporary muscimol lesions. She went on to medical school at the University of Washington.
Stephen McDowell
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2012
Stephen worked with a graduate student study of cognitive deficits by examining brain lesions of rats to determine the functionality of the anterior thalamus in the greater memory circuit. He went on to pursue a MS in computer science at Cornell University.
Maurice Petroccione
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2012
Maurice co-authored a paper titled “Hippocampal Context Process is Critical for Interference Free Recall of Odor Memories in Rats”. He went on to pursue a PhD in Biology at the Scimemi lab at SUNY Albany.
Jegath (Jiggy) Athilingam
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2011
Jiggy completed an honors thesis on the role of the endocannabinoid system in learning-induced neuronal survival. She went on to a neuroscience PhD program at the University of California, San Francisco.
Rohini Bagrodia
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2011
Rohini completed honors research examining immediate early gene expression in the anterior thalamus, retrosplenial cortex and the hippocampus during an olfactory learning task. Went on to assist with autism spectrum disorder research at UCLA and then a masters in clinical psychology at Columbia University.
Christopher David
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2011
Christopher conducted honors research on the role of the medial prefrontal cortex in olfactory discrimination learning. His thesis is titled “The Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Olfactory Learning”. Chris went on to the National Institute of Health in their Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) program and then medical school at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Grace Epstein
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2011
Grace completed an honors thesis investigating the role of the hippocampus in memory interference resolution and inhibition using a Retrieval-Induced Forgetting model. She went on to work as the Office Coordinator for Harlem Success Academy.
Jade Wu
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2011
Jade Wu received summa cum laude honors for her thesis on the role of the hippocampus in memory interference resolution and inhibition using a Retrieval-Induced Forgetting model and had a first author publication. Jade is now in a PhD program in clinical psychology at Boston University.
Rachel Bavley
Undergraduate Student – 2010
Rachel conducted honors research on the contributions of hippocampal neurogenesis to cognitive functioning, culminating in a thesis titled “The Role of Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Context Discrimination”. She went on to the National Institute of Health in their Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) program and a MPH at Columbia University.
Jessica Masterton
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2010
Jess co-authored a paper titled “Hippocampal Context Processing is Critical for Interference Free Recall of Odor Memories in Rats”. She went on to pursue a MFA in creative writing and a PhD in English and Comparative Literature at the University of Cincinnati.
Drew Melmed
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2010
Drew completed an honors thesis on the time-limited role of the retrosplenial cortex in discriminative learning. He went on to work as a research assistant at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress in Bethesda, MD.
Yuliya Shteynberg
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2010
Yuliya assisted on projects with training the rats and analyzing data. She went on as a MS student in Psychology at University of North Texas.
Lena Germinario
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2009
Lena analyzed temporal and spatial cues to episodic memory and assisted with research evaluating the role of the hippocampus in context-based odor discrimination tasks. She went on to law school at UC Hastings College of the Law.
Carolina Vega
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2009
Carolina worked on olfactory classification tasks. She went on to Tufts Medical School.
Ann Yang
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2009
Ann acquired data on memory patterns affected by brain lesions and context interference cues in rats. She went on to a Masters of Science in Public Health (MSPH) degree in International Health, Health Systems at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Dan Butterly
Undergraduate Research Assistant – 2008
Dan helped develop our context based olfactory list learning task and conducted honors research on the role of the hippocampus in using contextual information to resolve interference. His thesis is titled “Hippocampal Lesions and the Importance of Context for Odor List Learning in Rats”. Dan is currently an analyst for an investment bank, probably making way more money than the rest of us.
Former Visiting Students
Daniela Betancurt
Visiting Summer Research Assistant – 2018
Daniela recently finished a double major program in Microbiology and Biology with a minor in Psychobiology at the University of Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia.
Jenny Zähringer
Visiting Student – 2013
Jenny worked with graduate student Adam Miller investigating the role of the retrosplenial cortex input in support of hippocampal memory representations in rats. She went on to a PhD program at Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany.