People
Meet Our Team
Senior Lab Members
Jamil Zaki
Lab Director
Jamil received his BA from Boston University, his Ph.D. from Columbia University, and postdoctoral training at Harvard University. When he’s not writing about social connection for work, his hobbies include writing about social connection for fun, slow but enthusiastic middle distance running, and trying to find any new recipes the lab kids will actually eat.
Kylie Yorke
Lab Manager
Kylie received her undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University with majors in Psychology and Philosophy. There, she investigated the evolutionary bases of emotion and how our social-emotional brains influence environmental decision-making. She is interested in how psychological research can help nudge pro-environmental decisions, and also works with kids in the nature based therapy space. Outside the lab, she loves to cook haphazardly, do anything active outdoors, and take impromptu road trips when opportunities present themselves.
Rui Pei
Postdoctoral Fellow
Rui (/ˈreɪ/) received her B.A. in Cognitive Neuroscience from Brown University, and her PhD in Communication from University of Pennsylvania. She is interested in understanding how adolescents and young adults make social decisions in the context of psychological and neural development, as well as social and environmental factors such as social networks. Outside of lab, she spends her time rock climbing and trying to keep her houseplants alive.
Eric Neumann
Graduate Student
Eric earned his B.Sc. at the Free University of Berlin. He spent his junior year as a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago, and the following summer as a research assistant at Harvard. His principal interests include why we tend to underestimate how social and prosocial a species we are, as well as testing interventions to reconnect us across social and moral divides. Eric loves to explore new countries, and enjoys food so long as he doesn't have to prepare it.
Catherine Garton
Graduate Student
Catherine graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in psychology and environmental science. Her research investigates how people respond to moral and political disagreements. She is especially interested in the processes that hinder humility, empathy, and tolerance around deeply held beliefs, and what might foster more harmonious communities instead. Outside of research, she will take any excuse to be in the mountains, and her achilles heel is cute, overpriced coffee shops.
Isabella Aslarus
Graduate Student
Izzy earned her a B.A. in Neuroscience from Harvard University with a minor in English before working as a Lab Manager at Brown in the FeldmanHall Lab. Broadly, she is interested in real world social networks and affective cognition.
Su Doğa Karaca
Research Assistant
Su graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.S. in Data Science and a B.A. in Psychology. Her prior research focused on decoding political bias through linguistic insights of large language models. At the SSNL, Su primarily focuses on analyzing the Stanford Communities Project's complex social networks and behavioral data while implementing data maintenance and governance practices. Outside of the lab, Su enjoys exploring new places—sometimes by intentionally getting lost—and befriending all the dogs, cats, and recently sea lions, along her way.
Geshi Yeung
Research Assistant
Geshi received his B.A. in Cognitive Science and Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, he researched on the neural basis of social decision-making and used deep neural networks to model human memory. He now primarily works on the Stanford Communities Project, hoping to understand the dynamics of social networks and their relationship to neural and psychological measures of traits and well-being. Outside the lab, he enjoys singing, photography, and going on scenic hikes.
Junior Lab Members
Emily Huang
Undergraduate RA
Emily is a junior double majoring in Psychology and English. She is interested in understanding the impacts of stories on social wellbeing and social cognition, and researching how literature and other forms of narrative can be leveraged as tools for counseling and intervention. Outside of the lab, Emily enjoys drumming with Stanford Taiko and listening to movie soundtracks.
Lauren Seu
Part-time RA
Lauren recently completed her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Creative Writing at Stanford and is currently an M.S. candidate in the Community Health and Prevention Research coterminal master's program. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai`i, her exposure to a unique variety of different cultures and perspectives has driven her goals for decreasing stigma surrounding mental illness and increasing diversity in mental health care, as well as her passion for understanding other humans in order to meet them where they're at. She is very excited to be contributing to the Just Mercy project as a member of SNL. In her free time, Lauren enjoys singing, being in the water, and learning how to play guitar.
Zeina Hashem
Undergraduate RA
Zeina is a junior majoring in Psychology and minoring in Biology and Symbolic Systems. She is interested in psychopathology and the neural basis of social and emotional wellbeing. In her free time she likes to read, cook (badly) and enjoy live music.
Ana Costa
Undergraduate RA
Ana is a junior double majoring in Psychology and English. She is interested in understanding social perceptions of support-seeking actions, and in researching how storytelling and reading can influence prosocial behavior. In her free time, she enjoys watching Avatar: The Last Airbender (the animated version!), learning Japanese, and re-reading Kafka and Woolf.
Junior Junior Lab Members
Luisa Zaki
Lab Kid
Luisa is the lab's youngest member, but don't let that fool you. Now cruising through second grade, her research interests include cake-making, high fashion (including designing her own clothes), and all things craft-y. During her spare time, Luisa can be found making everyone around her crack up, and doing carpool karaoke to songs from Fleetwood Mac, Chappell Roan, and everyone in between.
Alma Zaki
Lab Kid
Alma is a tenacious, creative 3rd grade scholar. Her research interests include crafting a perfect floor routine, writing mystery comic books, and exploring new painting styles. In her spare time, Alma enjoys trips to the mall with friends, time near any body of water with her cousins, and mentoring her junior colleague, Luisa.
Lab Alumni
Molly Arnn ◇ Dean Baltiansky ◇ Liza Benabbas ◇ Tyler Bonnen ◇ Annabel Bouwer ◇ Rachel Calcott ◇ Ryan Carlson ◇ Mina Caraccio ◇ Lauren Chen ◇ Christina Chwyl ◇ Marissa Clark ◇ Skylar Cohen ◇ Eleanor Collier ◇ Dustin Deinhart ◇ Isabel Dibble ◇ Jacqueline Do ◇ Julia Doody ◇ Roma Dziembaj ◇ Jake Elder ◇ Virsaviya Efraim ◇ Wicia Fang ◇ Lizzie Frankel ◇ Stephen Frey ◇ Ian Ferguson ◇ Courtney Gao ◇ Sam Grayson ◇ Leor Hackel ◇ Sahar Hashemian ◇ Ngan Kim Hoang ◇ Christina Huber ◇ Brent Hughes ◇ Averylia Jacintha ◇ Preeti Kakani ◇ Samantha Kargilis ◇ Naveen Kassamali ◇ Isabella Kahhale ◇ Derek Kincade ◇ Zoe Kleiman ◇ Hanna Kuhn ◇ Layo Laniyan ◇ Matt Leipzig ◇ Yuan Chang Leong ◇ Jocelyn Lin ◇ Yvette Lugo ◇ Marissa Maas ◇ Rucha Makati ◇ Natasha Marley ◇ Emma Master ◇ Alison Mattek ◇ Christopher Middleton ◇ Aaron Mitchell ◇ Sylvia Morelli ◇ Laura Ngan ◇ Erik Nook ◇ Daniel Ogunbamowo ◇ Desmond Ong ◇ Omri Raccah ◇ Mahnaz Roshanaei ◇ Natalie Samuels ◇ Luiza Almeida Santos ◇ Mriganka Singh ◇ Michael Smith ◇ Jae-Young Son ◇ Rebeca Soyk ◇ Chipper Stotz ◇ Alex Sweetser ◇ Amanda Szerdi ◇ Diana Tamir ◇ Valerie Taylor ◇ Emma Templeton ◇ Brittany Torrez ◇ Erika Weisz ◇ Craig Williams ◇ Sophie Wood ◇ Emily Yeh