Search Menu Globe Arrow Right Close

Lab Members

Sophia Cheng profile image
Sophia Cheng
Research Associate II

Sophia Cheng received a bachelor of science in mathematical and computational biology from Harvey Mudd College.

Hristos Courellis profile image
Hristos Courellis
Visiting Graduate Student (Caltech MD/PhD)

Hristos Courellis is an MD/PhD student in the UCLA/Caltech MSTP. He is currently pursuing his PhD in bioengineering at Caltech. He received his BS and MS in bioengineering at UC San Diego.

Jonathan Daume, PhD profile image
Jonathan Daume, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Jonathan Daume, PhD, received his doctorate in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University Hamburg in Germany. He is currently a Leopoldina Academy of Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Aniek Fransen profile image
Aniek Fransen
Visiting Graduate Student

Aniek Fransen is a graduate student in the Social and Decision Neuroscience Program at Caltech. In 2019, she received a master of science in neuroeconomics from Maastricht University, Netherlands.

Jake Gavenas, PhD profile image
Jake Gavenas, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar

Jake Gavenas, PhD, received his doctorate in computational and data sciences from Chapman University in 2023. He previously studied psychology and mathematics at UCLA and received his BA in 2017.

Maria del Mar "Mar" Yebra Granados, PhD profile image
Maria del Mar "Mar" Yebra Granados, PhD
Project Scientist

Mar Yebra, PhD, is a project scientist at the Rutishauser Lab. She received her doctorate in biomedical engineering at the Centre for Biomedical Technology in Madrid, Spain.

Cooper Grossman, PhD profile image
Cooper Grossman, PhD
Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar

Cooper Grossman is a postdoctoral scholar in the O'Doherty Lab at Caltech and a visiting postdoctoral scholar in the Rutishauser Lab. He received his PhD in neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University and BA in philosophy from the University of Southern California.

Yingxi Jin profile image
Yingxi Jin
Visiting Graduate Student

Yingxi Jin is a graduate student in the Computation and Neural Systems Program at Caltech. She received a bachelor of science in neuroscience with minors in mathematics and computer science from New York University.

Robert Kim, MD, PhD profile image
Robert Kim, MD, PhD
Resident (Neurology)

Robert received his MD and PhD from UCSD, where he worked with Terry Sejnowski. He is part of the MSTP program and is conducting research on computational modelling of memory processes.

Natalia Kurilenko profile image
Natalia Kurilenko
Graduate Student

Natalia Kurilenko is a PhD student in the Cedars-Sinai Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences. Her undergraduate degree is in medical biochemistry from Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University in Moscow.

Michael Kyzar profile image
Michael Kyzar
Research Associate II

Michael Kyzar received a bachelor of science degree in computational neuroscience from USC.

Evan Layher, PhD profile image
Evan Layher, PhD
Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar

Evan received his PhD in Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California Santa Barbara and his BS in Psychology and Neurobiology from the University of California Davis. He is currently a joint postdoc between the Rutishauser lab and the Miller Lab at UCSB.

Kevin Le profile image
Kevin Le
Visiting Graduate Student (Caltech CNS)

Kevin is a graduate student in the Computation and Neural Systems Program at the California Institute of Technology. He received a bachelor of arts in neuroscience and English from Amherst College.

Varun  Wadia, PhD profile image
Varun Wadia, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar

Varun Wadia, PhD, received his doctorate in Neurobiology from the California Institute of Technology in 2023. In 2015, he received a bachelor of science in physics and mathematics from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine.

Jiayang Xiao, PhD profile image
Jiayang Xiao, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar

Jiayang Xiao, PhD, received her doctorate in Neuroscience from Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. She is currently a postdoctoral scientist at the Rutishauser Lab working on the neural mechanisms of memory.

Junda Zhu, PhD profile image
Junda Zhu, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar

Junda Zhu, PhD received his doctorate in Neuroscience from Vanderbilt University in 2024. His thesis work with Christos Constantinidis was on maturation of working memory during adolescence.


Alumni Lab Members
  • Zhongzheng “Brooks” Fu, PhD, 2013-2023, Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow Position: Assistant Professor, UT Southwestern
  • Jie Zheng, PhD, 2018-2023, Postdoctoral Fellow
    Position: Assistant Professor, University of California, Davis
  • Tomas Aquino, PhD, 2016-2023, Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow
    Position: Postdoctoral Scholar, Columbia University
  • Mahideremariyam Gessesse, 2020-2023, Research Intern
    Position: MD/PhD Student, UCLA
  • Nuttida Rungratsameetaweemana, PhD, 2022-2023, Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar
    Position: Provost Research Fellow, Columbia University.
  • Stephen Meisenhelter, PhD, 2021-22, Postdoctoral Fellow
    Position: Research Scientist, Apple Inc.
  • Umais Khan, 2021-2022, Research Associate II
    Position: Graduate Student, Mt. Sinai
  • Natalie Gevoglanian, 2021–2022, Research intern (NIH BUILD PODER fellow)
  • Umit Keles, PhD, 2016-2022, Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow
    Position: Staff Scientist, Caltech
  • Juri Minxha, PhD, 2015-2022, Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow
    Position: AI residency/Research Scientist, Apple Inc.
  • Clayton Mosher, PhD, 2017-2022. Postdoctoral Fellow and Project Scientist
    Position: Lead Scientist, WarnerMedia Inc.
  • Adishree Ghatare, 2020-21, Research Intern (Caltech SURF)
    Position: Continuing Undergraduate at Caltech
  • Bernard Gomes, 2020-21, Research Associate II
    Position: Scientific Consultant, Brain Vision
  • Calvin Patel, 2021, Research Intern
    Position: Continuing Undergraduate at UCLA
  • Cooper Penner, 2019-2021, Research Associate II
    Position: MD/PhD Student, University of Pennsylvania
  • Jordan Feldman, 2017-20Research Intern (high school student in Minors in Research Program)
    Position: Undergraduate Student, Brown University
  • Matthew Chen, 2020-21, Research Intern
    Position: Medical Student, University of Southern California
  • Danielle Beam, 2019-21, Research Associate II
    Position: MD/PhD Student, New York University School of Medicine 
  • Seung Lee, MD, Research Intern
    Position: Neurosurgery Resident, Mayo Clinic
  • Nand Chandravadia, Research Associate II
    Position: Graduate Student, Columbia University
  • Shuo Wang, PhD, 2012-14, Graduate Student/Postdoctoral Fellow
    Position: Assistant Professor, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
  • Matthieu Koroma, MS, 2013-14, Graduate Student (master’s program)
    Position: Graduate Student, École normale supérieure, Paris, France
  • Shengzuan Jerry Ye, MS, 2012-14, Graduate Student (master’s program)
    Position: Software Engineer, Facebook
  • Alexander Perez, Summer 2016, Research Intern
    Position: Master’s Student, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
  • Shannon Sullivan, 2015-16, Summer 2017, Research Associate
    Position: Medical Student, Howard University, Washington, D.C.
  • Kurtis Birch, MD, 2014-16, Neurosurgical Resident
    Position: Neurosurgery Attending, Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, California
  • Benjamin Mittman, Summer 2017, Research Intern
    Position: Undergraduate Student, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York
  • April Carlson, 2016-18, Research Associate
    Position: Medical student at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts
  • Julien Dubois, PhD, 2016-19, Postdoctoral Fellow
    Position: Research Scientist, Kernel, Inc.
  • Tobias Staudigl, PhD, 2018-19, Postdoctoral Fellow
    Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany
  • Mailys Faraut, PhD, 2016-2019, Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Joshua Abel, Summer 2019, Research Intern
    Position: Student, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (studying data science and mathematics)
  • Harish Babu, MD, PhD, 2014-2018, Neurosurgery Resident
    Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York
  • Aneta Brzezicka, PhD, 2014-2017, Postdoctoral Fellow; 2017-2020, Research Associate III
    Position: Professor, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland
  • Jan Kaminski, PhD, 2013-2017, Postdoctoral Fellow; 2017-2020, Project Scientist
    Position: Assistant Professor, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Poland

Contact the Rutishauser Lab

127 S. San Vicente Blvd.
Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion, 8th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90048