The Friedman Brain Institute

At the Brain Awareness Fair, attendees can meet faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as they explore an atrium full of 30 unique brain-themed booths.

For information about the Annual Brain Awareness Fair, please contact Denise Croote, PhD, at mindatsinai@gmail.com. Mark your calendar for future Brain Awareness Week campaign dates:

• March 10-16, 2025
• March 9-15, 2026
• March 15-21, 2027
• March 13-19, 2028

12th Annual Brain Awareness Fair

The Friedman Brain Institute hosted its 12th Annual Brain Awareness Fair for elementary, middle, and high school students and East Harlem community members on Tuesday, March 12th at The Mount Sinai Hospital. Exhibits and activities included pipe cleaner neuron models, a 3D surgery simulator, a Meet the Experts booth featuring some of Mount Sinai's most prominent neuroscientists, and the world’s only portable, inflatable, walk-through brain exhibit. The annual brain fair is always an enormous success, with 100 Mount Sinai volunteers and over 500 participants.

Learn More about this year’s Brain Fair

Art of the Brain

In honor of this year’s Brain Awareness Week, The Friedman Brain Institute at Icahn Mount Sinai joins the Dana Foundation in its global efforts to increase public awareness of the progress and benefits of brain research.

The Art of the Brain is an exhibition of photographs, painting, illustrations, and videos that celebrates the beauty of the brain as seen through the eyes of some of the world’s leading researchers. With the aid of the latest technological advances, as symbolized by these images, scientists are better able to understand how the brain works and to accelerate the development of new treatments for many brain disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, autism, drug addiction, schizophrenia, and Parkinson's disease, among many others.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at #ArtoftheBrain

If you would like to make a donation to our Diversity in Neuroscience initiative through the purchase of any of the Art of the Brain images, or receive more information about The Art of the Brain or our Diversity in Neuroscience initiative, please contact Veronica Szarejko at veronica.szarejko@mssm.edu.

Storytelling

Stories surround us. Everyone has a story to tell, whether it’s about how we came to be the way we are, a challenge, a triumph, or even a catastrophe. The power of storytelling is that it makes what we have to say relatable, gives us the ability to appeal to the values of others. As scientists, we can use storytelling to communicate our passion for science, our drive, and our successes and failures to our friends and families, potential donors, study sections, and the public.

Stories of Brain and Beyond, a special Icahn Mount Sinai storytelling event in which five scientists shared true, personal stories of their scientific paths. Created through a collaboration between The Friedman Brain Institute and The Story Collider, and spearheaded by Aya Osman, PhD, and Abha K Rajbhandari, PhD, this event is performed live on-stage at Caveat, a New York City performance space. From the tragic to the hilarious, the storytellers explored the deeply human side of science. Hosts: Aya Osman and Paula Croxson

Listen to our “Stories of Brain and Beyond” storytellers

Meet our 2024 Storytellers

Mackenzie Brown grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina and graduated with a Masters of Public Health from the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. Her graduate research focused on understanding how depressive symptoms impact disease management strategies in people with hypertension in the rural South. After a year of collecting data across the country as a Research Fellow with Stanford University, she moved to New York and worked as a Research Coordinator conducting behavioral interventions for individuals with rheumatic diseases. Now at DAC, she is interested in pursuing a PhD to explore how early birth trauma and premature birth can impact mental health across the lifespan.

After graduating in 2016, Alessandra Cervera delved into neuroscience as the Lead Research Coordinator for the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study under Dr. BJ Casey at Yale University. Collecting fMRI data for this study shifted Alessandra’s interests toward the biological origins of brain ailments, and sparked the desire to pursue a career in medicine as a physician. Since then, she has completed the Columbia University Post-baccalaureate Pre-medical Program, worked as the Clinical Coordinator for the Neuropathology Brain Bank (NPBB) at Mount Sinai, and is now navigating the current medical school application cycle. When not in the NPBB or conducting research in Dr. John Crary’s lab, Alessandra enjoys cycling throughout the city she calls home, learning about the indigenous healing practices of her Mexican ancestors, and finding opportunities to share joy with those she encounters.

Davide Folloni is a passionate foodie who decided, early on in his studies, to investigate why and how his brain would constantly push him to go foraging for new restaurants to taste delicious food. To answer this question, he started training as clinical psychologist, he spent a few years working in healthcare and he then started a PhD in Neuroscience. During his PhD he compared the anatomy and connectivity of limbic and prefrontal cortex, he developed novel non-invasive protocols of transcranial focused ultrasound and used these protocols to causally investigate the contribution of areas supporting contingent learning and value-guided behaviors. He is now a Post-Doctoral research fellow in the Department of Neuroscience and Friedman Brain Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York where he aims to describe the neural mechanisms driving oscillations in affective states. He is also actively involved in public outreach and in organizing programs aimed to promote diversity in academia. Despite all these years in in academia, his passion for food foraging has not decreased and, if anything, it has only been made worse by his current training for the New York marathon.

Hannah (Yu) Hao is a postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Daniela Schiller and Dr. Jennifer Foss-Feig. Her research focuses on understanding the neural substrates involved in dynamic social interaction and social decision making in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder, as well as exploring the impact of socio-demographic factors in this context. Hannah received her PhD in Human Behavior and Design from Cornell University.

Pamela Toh is a first year graduate student in the lab of Dr. Abha Rajbhandari. Pamela graduated from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa in 2021 with Bachelor of Science degrees in Biochemistry and Psychology, and Minors in Mathematics and Microbiology. After undergrad, Pamela completed a summer neuroscience research internship at the McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Florida. Pamela subsequently joined the Pacific Biosciences Research Center in Honolulu as a Research Technician until moving to NYC to join the Mount Sinai community in 2023. Pamela enjoys cozy video games, reading, yoga, and powerlifting.

Road to Resilience

An anxious woman’s worst fears come true. A young man grasps for a ladder out of poverty and depression. On this episode, two resilience stories told live by neuroscience PhD students at Icahn Mount Sinai. Featuring “unsanctioned” breast exams, zebra finches, and Designer Receptors Activated Only by Designer Drugs (DREADDs). These stories were performed live at the Studying the Brain storytelling event hosted by The Friedman Brain Institute at El Barrio's Artspace PS109 on March 11, 2019.

Listen to Anastasia Efthymiou and Joseph Simon, IV share their Studying the Brain stories.