Profiles of Selected Alumni
Mount Sinai is proud to feature some of our highly successful graduates from the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Under the mentorship of Mount Sinai’s accomplished and dedicated faculty thesis advisors, our students are prepared for a variety of careers, including academia, biotechnology, education, scientific writing and consulting, engineering, health care administration, and others.
Aster Perkins, PhD 2024 (Advisor: Erin Rich, MD, PhD)
Postdoc, NYU
Michael Fernando, PhD 2024 (Advisors: Kristen Brennand, PhD and Paul Slesinger, PhD)
Postdoc, The Rockefeller Univ
Joe Simon PhD 2024 (Advisor: Erin Rich, MD, PhD)
Postdoc, NYU
Muhammad Furqan Afzal, PhD 2023 (Advisor: Helen Mayberg, MD)
Applied AI Scientist, NeuroPace
Amanda Leitheid, PhD 2023 (Advisor: Hala Harony-Nicolas, PhD)
Senior Consultant at Acsel Health
Chris Guevara, PhD 2023 (Advisors: George Huntley, PhD and Deanna Benson, PhD)
Senior Associate, Life Sciences and Healthcare Startup Banking, J.P. Morgan
Amni Al-Kachak , PhD 2023 (Advisor: Ian Maze, PhD)
Senior Medical Writer, Flywheel Partners
Emma Lehmann, PhD 2022 (Advisor: Paul Kenny, PhD)
Scientist at Intra-Cellular Therapies
Nick Upright, PhD 2022 (Advisor: Mark G. Baxter, PhD)
Patent Agent, Wilson Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati, Patents and Innovations
Sarah Montgomery, PhD 2022 (Advisor: Ming-hu Han, PhD)
Senior Neuroscience Engineer, Modendo, OInc
Kelsey Lucerne, PhD 2022 (Advisor: Drew Kiraly, MD, PhD)
Senior Scientific Analyst, Corporate Strategy and Business Development, Marinus Pharma
Tristan Fehr, PhD 2021 (Advisor: Mark G. Baxter, PhD)
Associate Program Officer, Washington State Academy of Sciences
Roxana Mesias, PhD 2021 (Advisors: George W Huntley, PhD and Deanna L Benson, PhD)
Program Manager, Weill Cornell
Saima Machlovi, PhD 2021 (Advisor: Alison Goate, D.Phil)
Scientist/Biotech Equity Research Associate, Morgan Stanley
Kavya Devarakonda, PhD 2021 (Advisors: Sarah Stanley, PhD and Paul Kenny, PhD)
Freelance Grant and Manuscript Writer
Ayan Hussein, PhD 2021 (Advisors: George W Huntley, PhD and Deanna L Benson, PhD)
Biotech Equity Research Associate, Cantor Fitzgerald, New York
Kevin Norman, PhD 2021 (Advisor: Hiro Morishita, PhD)
Consultant, Back Bay Life Science Advisors
Katherine LeClair. PhD 2021 (Advisor: Scott Russo, PhD
Senior Lab Manager, Generate:Biomedicines
Denise Croote, PhD 2021 (Advisor: Daniela Schiller, PhD
Assistant Professor, CEYE, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Lucy Bicks, PhD 2020 (Advisors: Hiro Morishita, MD, PhD and Schahram Akbarian, MD, PhD)
Postdoc, UCLA
Casey Lardner, PhD 2020 (Advisor: Eric Nestler, MD, PhD)
Executive Director, Genspace NYC
Josefa Sullivan, PhD 2019 (Advisor: Anne Schafer, MD, PhD)
Senior Director at MeiraGTx
Masato Sadahiro, PhD 2019 (Advisor: Hiro Morishita, MD, PhD)
Postdoc, Univ of CA Berkeley
Kamilah Castro, PhD 2019 (Advisor: Patrizia Casaccia, MD, PhD)
Manager, Global Medical Content, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc.
Ana Badimon, PhD 2019 (Advisor: Anne Schaefer, MD, PhD)
Postdoc, The Rockefeller Univ
Carla Golden, PhD 2019 (Advisor: Joseph Buxbaum, PhD)
Postdoc, NYU
Ashley Lepack, PhD 2019 (Advisor: Ian Maze, PhD)
Senior Scientist, BlueRock Therapeutics
Meghan Flanigan, PhD 2018 (Advisor: Scott Russo, PhD) Assistant Professor, The Medical University of South Carolina
Erin K. Flaherty, PhD 2018 (Advisor: Kristen Brennand, PhD) Postdoc, Columbia University
Stacy M. Ku, PhD 2017 (Advisor: Ming-Hu Han, PhD) Vice President, Specialty Pharmaceuticals Equity Research, Cowen and Company
Gabor Egervari, PhD 2017 (Advisor: Yasmin Hurd, PhD)
Postdoc, UPenn
Ben Glicksberg, PhD 2017 (Advisor: Joel Dudley, PhD)
Vice-President, Data Science and Machine Learning, Character Biosciences
Madeline Pfau, PhD 2017 (Advisor: Scott Russo, PhD) Associate Director, Global Scientific Publications at AbbVie
Bridget Matikainen-Ankeny, PhD 2017 (Advisor: Deanna Benson, PhD) Assistant Professor, Rutgers University
Barbara Juarez, PhD 2016 (Advisor: Ming-Hu Han, PhD) Assistant Professor, University of Maryland-Baltimore
Hannah Cates, PhD 2016 (Advisor: Eric Nestler, MD, PhD) Assistant Professor. Adelphi University
John Mariani, PhD 2016 (Advisor: Gareth John, PhD)
Professor, Univ of Rochester
HaoSheng Sun, PhD 2015 (Advisor: Eric Nestler, MD, PhD) Assistant Professor, Univ of Alabama
Sam Golden, PhD 2014 (Advisor: Scott Russo, PhD) Assistant Professor, University of Washington
Nikos Tzavares, PhD 2014 (Advisor: Robert Blitzer, PhD) Research Assistant Professor, Assistant Core Scientific Director, Mount Sinai
Lauren Friedman, PhD 2014 (Co-Advisors: Deanna L. Benson, PhD and Zhenyu Yue, PhD) Scientific Program Officer, NINDS
Sarah Stern, PhD 2014 (Advisor: Cristina Alberini, PhD)
Group Leader, Max Planck Inst. Florida
Claudia Vargas, PhD 2014 (Advisor: Yasmin Hurd, PhD)
Assistant Professor, Georgia State Univ
Dan Christoffel, PhD 2014 (Advisor: Dr. Scott Russo, PhD)
Assistant Professor, UNC
Hannah Brautigam, PhD (Advisor: Dr. Sam Gandy, MD, PhD)
Business Development Associate, Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics, Inc.
Jessica Walsh, PhD 2013 (Advisor: Ming-Hu Han, PhD) Professor, UNC
Steven Stockton, Jr, PhD 2013 (Advisor: Lakshmi Devi, PhD)
VP Portfolio Director, Scientific at Envision Pharma Group
Bryan Sepulveda, PhD 2013 (Advisor: Deanna Benson, PhD)
Senior Director, Sirtex Medical Limited
Rhonda Charles, PhD 2013 (Advisor: Joseph Buxbaum, PhD)
Vice-President, Chameleon Communications
Jennifer DiNieri, PhD 2011 (Advisor: Yasmin Hurd, PhD) Associate Director, Global Medical Affairs Oncology Publications, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc.
Xiaosi Gu, PhD 2011 (Advisors: Jin Fan, PhD and Patrick Hof, MD) Associate Professor, Yale University
Erik Bloss, PhD 2011 (Advisor: John H. Morrison, PhD) Assistant Professor, The Jackson Laboratory
John Steele, PhD 2011 (Advisor: Sam Gandy, MD, PhD) Associate Director, Voyager Therapeutics, Inc.
Yana Zorina, PhD 2011 (Advisor: Ravi Iyengar, PhD) Scientist, dsm-firmenich
Patrick Coskren, PhD 2011 (Advisor: Patrick Hof, MD) Software Engineer, Google Inc.
Afia Akram, PhD 2010 (Advisor: Patrick Hof, MD)
Medical Writer, Fishawack Group
Ian S. Maze, PhD 2010 (Advisor: Eric Nestler, MD, PhD) Professor and HHMI Investigator, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Ioana Carcea, PhD 2010 (Advisor: Deanna L. Benson, PhD)
Assistant Professor, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Allyson Friedman, PhD 2010 (Advisor: Klaude Weiss, PhD) Assistant Professor, Hunter College
Blake Gurfein, PhD 2009 (Advisor: Gareth John, PhD) Founder: Humanity Neurotech; Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, UCSF
David Carpenter, PhD 2009 (Advisor: Cheuk Tang, PhD) Director R & D Collaborations, Siemens Healthcare
Pamela Kennedy, PhD 2009 (Advisor: Matthew Shapiro, PhD) Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, UCLA
Tao Ma, PhD 2008 (Advisor: Robert Blitzer, PhD) Professor, Wake Forrest School of Medicine
Jul Lea Shamy Twining, PhD 2007 (Advisor: Peter Rapp, PhD) Senior medical writer, Regeneron
Bonnie Fletcher, PhD 2007 (Advisor: Peter Rapp, PhD) Intellectual Property Litigation Associate, Looley LLP, Intellectual Property Law firm
Vanja Nagy, PhD 2006 (Advisor: George W. Huntley, PhD) Neuroscience Program Director, CEBINA, Vienna, Austria
Iddil Bekirov, PhD (Advisor: Deanna Benson, PhD)
Health Program Specialist, NIMH
Angela Ho, PhD 1998 (Advisor: Maryann Blum) Associate Professor, Boston University
Cynthia Shannon Weickert, PhD 1995 (Advisor: Mariann Blum) Team Leader, NeuRA; Professor, SUNY Upstate
Stephen D. Ginsberg, PhD 1993 (Advisor: John H. Morrison, PhD) Associate Professor, New York University
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MSTP
Lauren Lepow, MD, PhD ISMMS Psych Residency-PhD program 2024 (Advisor: Alex Charney, MD, PhD) Assistant Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Amara Plaza-Jennings, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2022 (Advisor: Schaharam Akbarian, MD, PhD) Resident, Mass General Brigham
Prashanth Rajarajan, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2021 (Advisor: Schahram Akbarian, MD, PhD) Resident, Mass General
Hope Kronman, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2021 (Advisor: Eric Nestler, MD, PhD) Resident, NYU
Grace Mosley, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2021 (Advisor: James Iatridis, PhD) Resident, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Elisa Nabel, MD, PhD ISMMS MSTP 2020 (Advisor: Hiro Morishita, MD, PhD)
Resident, Boston Children’s Hospital
Zach Lorsch, MD, PhD ISMMS MSTP 2020 (Advisor: Eric Nestler, MD, PhD) Resident, Duke University
Joe Scarpa, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2019
Assistant Professor, Weill-Cornell
Mitra Heshmati, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2019 (Advisor: Scott Russo, PhD) Assistant Professor, University of Washington
Efrain Ribeiro, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2019 (Advisor: Eric Nestler, MD, PhD) Pathologist, Quest Diagnostics
Benjamin Laitman, MD, PhD ISMMS MSTP 2018 (Advisor: Gareth John, PhD)
Resident, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Virginia Gao, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2018 (Advisor: Cristina Alberini, PhD)
Chief Resident, Weill-Cornell
Dani Dumitriu, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2013 (Advisor: John Morrison, PhD)
Associate Professor, Columbia University
Jake (James) Young, MD, PhD, ISMMS 2013 (Advisor: Matthew Shapiro, PhD)
Assistant Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Jessica Nikitczuk Sereysky, MD, PhD, ISMMS 2013 (Advisor: George W Huntley, PhD)
Associate Director, Bristol Myers Squibb
Prasad Shirvalkar, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2012 (Advisor: Matthew Shapiro, PhD)
Associate Professor, UCSF
Erin Rich, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2010 (Advisor: Matthew Shapiro, PhD)
Associate Professor, NYU
Noura Abul-Husn, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2009 (Advisor: Lakshmi Devi, PhD)
Associate Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
C. David Mintz, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2007 (Advisor: Deanna Benson, PhD)
Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins University
Alex Proekt, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2006 (Advisor: Klaude Weiss, PhD)
Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Hideo Makimura, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2004 (Advisor: Charles Mobbs)
Chief Medical Officer, Affinia Therapeutics
Brett Morrison, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 2001 (Advisor: John Morrison, PhD)
Associate Professor of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University
Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 1998 (Advisor: John H. Morrison, PhD) Professor of Neurology, Physiology, & Psychiatry, Director of Neuroscience Imaging Center, Founder and Executive Director of Neuroscape, UCSF
Steven Siegel, MD, PhD, ISMMS MSTP 1996 (Advisor: John H. Morrison, PhD) Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Southern California