People
Director
Chandramallika Basak | Director
Associate Professor
Center for Vital Longevity
Department of Psychology, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences
The University of Texas at Dallas
Office: 1600 Viceroy Drive, Rm 815b, Dallas, TX 75235
Phone: 972-883-3724
Email: cbasak@utdallas.edu
Lab Manager
Christopher Elliott | Lab Manager
Email: christopher.elliott@utdallas.edu
Christopher graduated from UT Dallas with a BS in psychology, and joined the Basak lab in Spring 2024. He has professional experience in Behavioral Health having worked as a Mental Health Technician before his exposure to research. He now has an interest in plasticity, learning and expertise, and his current project is focused on the exploration of video game expertise and the transfer of expertise into generalizable domains.
Research Assistants (post-grad)
Maha Abbasi | Research Assistant
Email: maha.abbasi@utdallas.edu
Maha holds a BS in Psychology and MS in applied cognition and neuroscience from UT Dallas. Her professional background includes experience as a psychometrist, using standardized neuropsychological assessments to evaluate TBI in a private practice environment. Maha joined the lab’s BETTER Aging Phase IIB clinical trial, focusing on participant recruitment and behavioral & neuroimaging data collection. She has also participated in data analysis for studies examining the relationship between music expertise and working memory, and regions of brain activation during task-switching paradigms. Maha is passionate about advancing equity in healthy aging through diverse samples and the development of accessible interventions.
Doctoral Students
Francisco J. Sierra | Doctoral Student
Email: francisco.sierra@utdallas.edu
Francisco joined Basak lab in Fall, 2022, and is doing his doctoral studies in cognition and neuroscience. His first-year project is focused on cognitive and brain structure (gray mater volumes, cortical thickness) predictors of complex skill learning in healthy aging, using data from ongoing clinical trials. He is also interested in using fNIRS to evaluate skill learning of lab-developed games. Francisco’s research interests also include the effects of different kinds of expertise (e.g., bilingualism, video game playing) on working memory updating and brain activity.
Yiyao Liu | Doctoral Student
Email: yiyao.liu@utdallas.edu
Yiyao joined the Basak LiNC Lab in 2024 as a PhD student in psychology. Her first-year project focuses on analyzing behavioral and fMRI data, using machine learning to classify and predict performance and brain activations in young and older adults during working memory tasks. She aims to apply these insights to develop cognitive training strategies. She is also interested in exploring driving expertise and media use behaviors in her future research. In her personal life, Yiyao enjoys concerts, riding motorcycles, and is excited to learn snowboarding and surfing.
Masters Student Interns
Advika Venkataraman | MS Intern
Email: axv180052@utdallas.edu
Advika is a first year masters student in psychological science program at UT Dallas, and is doing her thesis training with Dr. Basak. She is currently getting experience in projects related to developmental language disorder and music memory.
Undergraduate RAs
Jennifer Dodgen | Undergraduate Student
Jennifer is currently an undergraduate student at UTD majoring in Cognitive Science. In Spring 2025, she will begin a master’s degree in applied cognition and neuroscience.
Shruti Panda | Undergraduate Student
Shruti is currently an undergraduate student at UTD majoring in neuroscience. She is intrigued by the effects of epilepsy, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease on memory and overall brain structure. She loves martial arts, movies and baking!
Santosh Kolluri | Undergraduate Student
Santosh, a junior majoring in neuroscience at UT Dallas, is focusing on data collection in the BETTER Aging project and is interested in cognitive neuroscience and neurodegenerative diseases. In his free time, he enjoys playing basketball and chess.
Amrit Mohanty | Undergraduate Student
Amrik is a senior neuroscience major working on the Rocket League/Bilingualism study. Amrik is interested in neuroplasticity’s role in recovering from traumatic brain injury, neuropharmacology, and interventions for improving/slowing down cognitive deficits in elderly adults. In his free time, Amrik loves watching basketball, Formula 1, and reading Star Wars novels!
Gwen Danae Villaverde | Undergraduate Student
Gwen Villaverde is an undergraduate student studying neuro psychology at UT Dallas. She is currently involved in BETTER Aging study and Rocket league Bilingualism. Gwen is interested in neural cognitive processes, neural networking as well as working Memory during aging. In her future, she hopes to pursue a research study on addiction and mental health that could improve people’s health and lifestyle. Her hobbies include watching movies, playing pool, and acting!
Lab Alumni
Kaoru Nashiro| | Postdoctoral Research Associate at LiNC | Later position: Research Scientist at University of Southern California
M. Irene Cunha | Masters Student (ACN) and Research Assistant at LiNC | Later position: Physician at Hospital Central do Ex’ercito, Brazil
Alex Hinerman | Masters Student | Later Position: Adjunct Professor at Sandy Lake Community College, UT
Nithya Ramakrishnan | Masters Student (ACN) at LiNC | Later position: Research Engineer at Department of Psychiatry, UT Health Sciences, Houston
Xi Chen | Masters Student (ACN) at LiNC | Later position: Assistant Professor at Stony Brooke University
Erum Whyne | Masters Student (PS) at LiNC | Later position: Research Coordinator at VA North Texas Healthcare System, Dallas
Yuguang (Irene) Zhao | Masters Student (ACN) and Research Assistant at LiNC | Later position: Doctoral student at UT Dallas
Melissa Druskis | Masters Student (ACN) at LiNC | Later position: Board Certified Behavior Analyst at Therapy and Beyond, North Texas
Haripriya Srinivasaraghavan | Masters Student (ACN) at LiNC | Later position: Software Engineer
Aparna Gudimetla | Undergraduate Student (UT Dallas) at LiNC | Later Position: Medical School Student at Emory University
W. Christian Martin | Undergraduate Student (UT Dallas) at LiNC | Later position: Medical School Student at Texas A & M University
Wali Azeem | Undergraduate Student (UT Dallas) at LiNC
Sean Kothapally | Undergraduate Student (UT Dallas) at LiNC
Yoonchung (Laura) Choi | High School (Groton School, MA) Intern at LiNC | Current position: Undergraduate student at Georgetown University
Arit Banerjee | Masters Student ACN at LiNC | Later position: PhD student at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Amsha Reddy | Undergraduate Student (UT Dallas) at LiNC
Charles D. Wilder | Undergraduate Student (UT Dallas) at LiNC
John Moorman | Masters Student (ACN) at LiNC
Aaron Kruse| | Masters Student (ACN) at LiNC
Maisha Razzaque | Part-time Research Assistant at LiNC
Bhargavi Bhaskar | Research Assistant at LiNC | Later Position: Associate Strategist at PMG Digital Agency
Rahul Rajesh |Undergraduate Student (UT Dallas) and Masters Student (ACN) at LiNC | Current position: Pursuing MD at University of Arkansas Medical School, Little Rock, AR.
Margaret A. O’Connell | PhD Student (Psychological Sciences) under Dr. Basak | Later Position: Clinical Trial Coordinator at Medspace
Nicholas R. Ray | PhD Student (Cognition and Neuroscience) under Dr. Basak | Later Position: Post-doctoral researcher at Columbia University Medical School
Evan T. Smith | PhD Student (Cognition and Neuroscience) under Dr. Basak | Later Position: Post-doctoral research associate at UT Dallas (Dr. Denise Park Lab)
Shuo Qin | PhD Student (Cognition and Neuroscience) under Dr. Basak and Post-doctoral Research Associate at LiNC lab | Later Position: Research Fellow at National University of Singapore
Andrew Sun | Full-time Research Assistant at LiNC | Later position: PhD student in Northeastern University
Elizabeth Victoria Manon | Undergraduate Research Assistant
Glenn Sherard | Graduate Student | Current position: PhD Student
Micaela Andreo | Graduate Student | Current position: PhD Student
Syed Sameer Ghazi | Undergraduate Student | Current position: Pursuing MD
Amy Berglund-Barazza | Post-doc | Current Position: Research Scientist in NIRx
Farhan Ali | Undergraduate Student
Abdul Malik Ayam | Undergraduate Student | Current position: Pursuing MD at UT San Antonio Medical School
Esha Kanna | Undergraduate Student | Current position: Pursuing MD at UTSW Medical School, Dallas, TX
Zaid Fazal | Undergraduate Student | Current position: Pursuing MD at UTSW Medical School, Dallas, TX
Eric Hoang Nguyen | Undergraduate Research Assistant | Current position: Pursuing MD degree at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Paulina Skolasinska | PhD Student (Cognition and Neuroscience) under Dr. Basak at LiNC lab | Later Position: Post-doctoral Researcher at McGill University