Kristina Denisova

Our lab’s mission is to understand the neural systems that subserve sensation and perception and how their impairment may contribute to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, in particular Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). I look forward to mentoring Graduate Center’s CNC PhD students in advanced neuroimaging techniques, including functional and structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and to help ensure competitive success for all trainees. I graduated magna cum laude from NYU with an Honors degree in Psychology (sponsor: Marisa Carrasco, PhD). My work has been recognized with national awards (1st prize for research from Psi Chi; member of Phi Beta Kappa; a SFARI Investigator - an Award for highly novel, groundbreaking studies in autism). I obtained my PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Rutgers University (sponsor: Dr. Manish Singh, PhD), followed by exceptional training in MRI during my NIMH T32 Fellowship, including scanning of children with ASD, signal processing and data analysis (with Brad Peterson, MD) at Columbia University, where I also developed a research program in children with autism and those at risk. Our lab’s discovery of the earliest quantitative markers of atypical development to date, as early as 1-2 months after birth, is now at the top ~5% (Altmetric). I am now leading several research projects, including with funding by the NIMH with the aim to discover the origins of autism in the 1st year of life. In addition to research with human subjects, we work with Big Data and use computational techniques to solve new problems in the field. A number my PhD- and Masters-level trainees published first-author papers and hold full-time jobs in the academia, and some in the industry (SalesForce and Amazon) as well. I invite interested students to inquire about current opportunities in our group.