Lab Members

Faculty

Sommer

Marc A. Sommer

Professor of Biomedical Engineering

marc.sommer@duke.edu

Staff

me

Jessi Cruger, RACC

Lab Manager, Research Analyst 1

jessi.cruger@duke.edu

Postdocs

Graduate Students

Neerav Goswami

Neerav Goswami

Graduate Student, GPENG

neerav.goswami@duke.edu

Alex Qian

Alex Qian

Masters Student GMENG

alex.qian@duke.edu

Anthony Alers

Anthony Alers

Graduate Student GPENG

anthony.alers@duke.edu

Undergraduate Students

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Lauren Strauch

Undergraduate E-UGD

High School Students

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Janie Qing

High School Student

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Riya Sinha

High School Student

List of Alumni

Research Scientists: 

Corrie Camalier (2018-2019) 

Postdoctoral Fellows

Suva Roy (2023; Sponsored guest post-doc working in my lab, from Field lab at UCLA) 

Zachary Abzug (2018) 

Hrishikesh Rao (2017) 

Martin O. Bohlen (Pfizer-NCBiotech Fellow; Hartwell Foundation Biomedical Research Award Fellow; 2016-2022) 

Vincent Prevosto, Ph.D. (2010-2020) 

Michael J. Koval, Ph.D. (2012-2014) 

PHD Alumni

Joshua Stivers (Psychology & Neuroscience Ph.D. candidate, co-mentored with Roberto Cabeza; 2018-2021) 

Raveena Kothare (Duke BME Howard G. Clark III Fellow; BME Ph.D. candidate, 2016-2023; finished with an MS in BME) 

Divya Subramanian (Neurobiology Ph.D. candidate, 2016-2022; defended on March 24, 2022. Title: Contributions of Bayesian and Discriminative Models to Active Visual Perception across Saccades.) 

Zachary Abzug (NSF Graduate Research Fellow; Duke Scholars in Neuroscience  Program; BME Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation; BME Ph.D. candidate, 2011-2017; defended on November 3, 2017. 

Title: The Neurocomputational Basis of Serial Decision-Making. 

Hrishikesh Rao (NIH F31 NRSA Fellow; NSF Graduate Research Fellow; IGERT WISeNet Fellow; BME Ph.D. candidate, 2011-2016; defended on October 14, 2016.  Title: Bottom-up and Top-down Mechanisms of Visually-Guided Movements.)

Ramanujan Raghavan (2011-2016; Neurobiology Ph.D. candidate; co-mentored with Steve Lisberger; defended dissertation on October 7, 2016. Title: Analysis of Purkinje Cell Responses in the Oculomotor Vermis during the Execution of Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements.). 

PhD rotation students 

Ergi Spiro (Cognitive Neuroscience program, 2023) 

Kennedy Coates (Neurobiology program, 2023) 

Alev Brigande (Neurobiology program, 2022) 

Joshua Stivers (Cognitive Neuroscience program, 2018) 

David Murphy (Cognitive Neuroscience program, 2016) 

Divya Subramanian (Cognitive Neuroscience program, 2015) 

Sam Brudner (Cognitive Neuroscience program, 2015) 

Jeffrey Mohl (Neurobiology program, 2014) 

Charlie Giattino (Cognitive Neuroscience program, 2014) 

Benjamin Geib (Cognitive Neuroscience program, 2013) 

Jake Heffley (Neurobiology program, 2013) 

Hanna Oh (Cognitive Neuroscience program, 2013) 

Cassie Kozyrkov (Cognitive Neuroscience program, 2011) 

Joseph Barter (Cognitive Neuroscience program, 2011) 

Caroline Drucker (Neurobiology program, 2012) 

Yilei Cai (Neurobiology program, 2012) 

Masters Students 

Kiran Shehnaz Kaur (BME M.S. Program, 2023)

Garima Iyer (BME M.S. Program, 2023)

Cassie Hammond (Spring 2023 BME MS/MEng Research Fellow; BME M.S. Program, 2023-2024) 

Zhixing (Vincent) Dai (Fall 2022 BME MS/MEng Research Fellow; BME M.S. Program, 2021-2022) 

Jingwen Deng (2020 Dean’s Research Award; 2020 BME MS/MEng Research Fellowship; BME M.S. Program, 2020-2021) 

Adrianna Battle (BME M.S. Program, 2019-2020) 

Lucy Liang (BME M.S. Program, 2019-2020) 

Zisheng (Jason) Liang (BME M.S. Program, 2018) 

Lucas Hoffman (BME M.S. Program, 2018-2019) 

Richard Chen (BME M.S. Program, 2018) 

Aoxue (Mia) Miao (BME M.S. Program, 2018-2020) 

Xiaoyu Tong (BME M.S. Program, 2018-2019) 

Yi Zhao (BME M.S. Program, 2017-2018) 

Brandyn Wong (BME M.S. Program, 2017-2018) 

Hala El-Nahal (BME MS-MEng Research Fellow; BME M.S. Program, 2017, Currently Graduate Student in Sommer Lab) 

Josh Wu (BME 4+1 M.S. program, 2016-2018) 

Neerav Goswami (BME M.S. program, 2015-2017; Currently a PhD student in Sommer Lab) 

Dennis Wong (BME M.S. program, 2015-2017) 

Erinn Grigsby (BME M.S. program, 2013-2015; successful oral defense of  dissertation on March 24, 2015.  Title: The Effects of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) on the Neural Activity of Awake Non-Human Primates.) 

Matthew Frank (BME M.S. program, 2015) 

Melina Smith (BME 4+1 M.S. program, 2014-2015)  

Zachary Abzug (NSF Graduate Research Fellow; received MS on way to PhD, 2014) 

Kimi Rafie (BME 4+1 M.S. program, 2013-2014) 

Undergraduate Alumni

Neyla Kirby (2023) 

Miles Bradley (2022-2023) 

Angie Xie (2021-2022) 

Apoorva Das (2020-2023) 

Olivia Leggio (2021) 

Amber Brooks (2020-2023) 

Rahul Mukherji (2020-2021) 

Philip Cho (2018-2021) 

Gabriel Goldhagen (2020) 

Brianna McCollum (REU Fellow from Tennessee State University; 2019) 

Veronica Yuziuk (2019-2020) 

Jason Chou (Pratt Fellow; Grand Challenges Scholar; 2018-2020) 

Zongyu (Zoey) Li (2018) 

Vincent Peng (2018-2019) 

Luiza Wolf (2018-2019) 

Mackenzie Marques (2018-2019) 

Karen Ou (2018-2019) 

Mary Zhang (2016-2019) 

Jin Soo (Andrew) Byun (Computer Science, 2017-2018)  

McKenzie Middlebrooks (Neuroscience Honors thesis project; 2016-2017) 

Amy Xiong (Grand Challenges Scholar; 2016-2017) 

Pum Wiboonsaksakul (Pratt Fellow; 2016-2017) 

Sarah Proctor (BioCoRE Undergraduate Scholar; 2016-2019) 

Jinsu “Jason” Kim (Pratt Fellow; Grand Challenges Scholar; Walter J. Seeley Scholastic Award; Leonardo da Vinci Award; $25k in VentureWell grants for startup  

(co-founder/lead engineer, Physao); Graduated with Distinction; 2015-2016) 

Andrew Toader (Pratt Fellow; Graduated with Distinction; 2015-2016) 

Minyoung Ryoo (Pratt Fellow; Grand Challenges Scholar; Accenture Scholar Graduated with Distinction; 2015-2016) 

Andrew Freyberger (Pratt Fellow; 2015-2016) 

Kimberly Eddleman (2015-2016) 

Melina Smith (Pratt Fellow; Grand Challenges Scholar; 2014-2015; featured speaker at White House BRAIN Initiative Conference in 2014) 

Juwan Hong (Pratt Fellow; 2014-2015) 

Gehua Tong (2015; BME/Neuroscience dual major) 

Brie Jackson (BioCoRE Undergraduate Scholar; 2014) 

Kenneth Padilla (REU Fellow from Puerto Rico; 2013) 

Jessica Cao (Pratt Fellow; Graduated with Distinction; 2013-2014) 

Amit Vora (Pratt Fellow; Graduated with Distinction; 2013-2014) 

Fred Shen (Pratt Fellow; Graduated with Distinction; 2013-2014) 

Radu Darie (Pratt Fellow; Grand Challenges Scholar; Graduated with Distinction; 2012- 2014) 

Frank Lee (Pratt Fellow; 2012-2014) 

Cole Arora (Pratt Fellow; 2012-2014) 

Erinn Grigsby (Pratt Fellow; 2011-2013) 

Kimi Rafie (Pratt Fellow; 2011-2013; Master’s student, graduated 2014) 

Jennifer Villa (Pratt Fellow; Walter J. Seeley Scholastic Award; Leonardo da Vinci  Award; 2012-2013) 

Juan San Juan (Pratt Fellow; 2011-2013) 

Brian Kohen (2011-2013) 

Nicholas Jordan (summer student from Case Western University; 2012) 

Qifang (Yvonne) Bi (2011-2012) 

Sean Sketch (REU Fellow from Princeton University; 2011) 

Catherine Hartman (2010; Then was a graduate student at Harvard University) 

YiShin Chang (2011) 

High School Students: 

Amy Cheng (2018) 

Grishma Patel (2018-2019) 

Surasya Guduru (2017) 

Anna Hattle (2015-2016)

Bailey Blankenship (2014-2015)

Associates in Research: 

Tierney Daw (2019-2021) 

Mackenzie Marques (2019-2020) 

Neerav Goswami (2019-2020; Currently a PhD student in Sommer Lab) 

Brandyn Wong (2019) 

Hala El-Nahal (2018; Currently a PhD student in Sommer Lab) 

Melina Smith (2015-2017) 

Jerry Dahlke (2013-2014) 

Frank W. Petraglia III (2010-2012) 

Kedar Prabhudesai (2011-2012) 

Tom Heil (2011)