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7f Personnel

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Learn more about the people at the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics (PCfN).

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If you are interested in working with our lab, please check our FAQ prior to emailing.

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Director

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Anjan Chatterjee

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5f Professor of Neurology, Psychology, and Architecture
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Anjan Chatterjee is a Professor of Neurology, Psychology, and Architecture and the founding Director of the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics. He wrote The Aesthetic Brain: How We Evolved to Desire Beauty and Enjoy Art and co-edited Neuroethics in Practice: Mind, Medicine, and Society and The Roots of Cognitive Neuroscience: Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychology. He has received the Norman Geschwind Prize in Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology and the Rudolph Arnheim Prize for contribution to Psychology and the Arts. He is a founding member of the Board of Governors of the Neuroethics Society, the past President of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics, and the past President of the Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Society. He currently serves on the Boards of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia and has served on the boards of Haverford College, the Norris Square Neighborhood Project and the Associated Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

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CV for Anjan Chatterjee

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Eileen Cardillo

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3d Associate Director
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Eileen Cardillo, DPhil is a cognitive neuroscientist and Associate Director of the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics. She received her B.S. in Biological Psychology at the College of William and Mary and her doctorate in Experimental Psychology while a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. After completing her postdoctoral training at UC-San Diego and the University of Pennsylvania, Eileen served as the Patient Coordinator of the Focal Lesion Database at Penn’s Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. Her research investigates the cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting language comprehension, with a particular focus on metaphor and neuropsychological studies of patient populations. Other areas of interest include verbal creativity, aesthetic preference, and the cognitive and neural changes associated with contemplative practice.

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Staff

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Bella Bobrow

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Bella received her B.S. in Neuroscience from UC Santa Cruz, where she also studied art and architectural theory. At the PCfN, Bella supports daily operations, event planning, communications, and the administration of research studies. When not testing a new indie perfume she smells like darkroom chemicals or the inside of a beehive.

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Jeffrey Vadala

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I am interested in human perception of landscapes and architectural spaces and how they shape both cognitive and cultural processes in contemporary and archaeological contexts. To explore this, my research utilizes virtual reality and augmented reality tools to explore the complexities of human perception at ancient Maya sites in the Yucatan and Belize. As the director of the Penn Neurology VR Laboratory, I currently work as a collaborator and software developer with the goal of bringing virtual and augmented reality approaches and experimental methods to neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, and medical researchers. I owe my interdisciplinary approach and perspectives to my Ph.D. in anthropological archaeology which I received from the University of Florida in 2016 studying how the built and unbuilt landscapes at the Belizean site of Cerro Maya shaped human perception while structuring human and non-human relationships over time. I enjoy all things virtual, philosophy, playing music, making videos, and surreal humor.

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Postdoctoral Researchers

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Soma Chaudhuri

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I am an experimental psychologist interested in how individuals perceive and evaluate aesthetics and creativity in visual and literary art. My current research focuses on how the moral character of a person is perceived based on their facial beauty (or anomalies), and how individual differences in viewers' personalities influence their opinions. I am also curious about the flexibility or rigidity of our implicit moral judgments of others based on how attractive or unattractive their faces are. I earned my PhD in experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience from Goldsmiths, University of London, where I investigated the behavioral and neural correlates of creativity and aesthetic judgments of poetry. My undergraduate and postgraduate studies were in physics at the University of Calcutta, India. In my leisure time, I enjoy reading, writing, and reciting poetry, as well as reading novels and short stories. I also take pleasure in listening to music and instruments such as the piano and sitar, singing Indian melodies, cooking, painting, and spending time with family and friends.

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Vasiliki Meletaki

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Vasiliki is interested in how art and design can be used to promote wellness and facilitate emotion regulation in general and clinical population. Her research interests include among others the influence of expertise and psychophysiological characteristics in aesthetic and emotional experiences. Before joining the lab, she was in the Laboratory of Cognitive Neurosciences of CNRS in Marseille, working on interoceptive and psychological characteristics and bodily self on people with vestibular disorders. She received her PhD in Psychology from City, University of London investigating facial emotion perception and brain – body interactions on sensorimotor experts and specifically professional ballet dancers. Before that, she received her MSc. in Psychology from Coventry University where she fell in love with neuroscience investigating the neuroscience of creativity. Outside of the lab, you will find her dancing contemporary, traveling, baking, gardening, playing with her dog, or buying more books and plants.

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Hannah Merseal

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42 Postdoctoral Researcher
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Hannah is interested in the interaction of individuals' knowledge structure, expertise, and executive functioning when they are doing something creative: whether they are playing jazz, generating hypotheses, participating in an arts intervention, or solving a problem in the workplace. She uses neuroimaging and computational network science methods to examine these questions in diverse populations and environments. Hannah is also passionate about building research fairness and equity using open and reproducible methods, as well as conducting large-scale studies with representative sampling to inform policy decisions in education, healthcare, and workplace settings. Before joining the PCfN, she received her PhD in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University, where she worked in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity Laboratory. In her down time, you can find Hannah playing jazz/funk music with many friends, tasting coffees, buying books, storytelling in an RPG, or spoiling her cat.

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Student Researchers

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Raphael Englander

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43 Undergraduate Researcher
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Raphael is an undergraduate at Penn majoring in Jewish Studies on the pre-med track. As a multidisciplinary artist, his interest in joining the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics stems from his curiosity about the intersections of aesthetic experience, religion, and the mind. Previously, Raphael interned as a research assistant at the Penn X-ray Physics Laboratory. Outside of the lab, Raphael is a member of the Penn Shabbatones and an incoming president of Penn Students Against Antisemitism. Some of his favorite ways to spend time include playing guitar, dancing with the Philly Surfers, and hanging out with his two cats, Pixie and JJ, and his two dogs, Beau and Starrr.

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Darlene Leohansson

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43 Undergraduate Researcher
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Darlene is an undergraduate at Penn pursuing a degree in Neuroscience on the pre-medical track, as well as a minor in Fine Arts. She is excited to explore the impacts of aesthetic experiences on the human mind through interdisciplinary research at the intersection of her interests. Darlene considers herself a jack of all trades when it comes to art, engaging in everything from dance, to wheel throwing pottery, to film photography. Outside of the classrooms and studios, you can find her junk journaling, sipping on some boba, and enjoying her home city of Philadelphia.

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June Wang

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Nathan Yu

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Nathan is an undergraduate student studying Biology and Fine Arts, and is curious about neurosurgery, aesthetics, and moral cognition. He is interested in how the brain perceives beauty and morality, and how these domains overlap in shaping human judgment and behavior. He also enjoys creating medical illustrations, combining his artistic background with his scientific interests. In his free time, Nathan enjoys reading classic literature and playing basketball.

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Artists

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David Dempewolf

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3e Artist-in-Residence
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David Dempewolf is a Philadelphia-based video artist, animator, and gallerist whose work explores the complexities of perception through experimental animation and video. With formal training in sculpture from PAFA, a BFA from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MFA from Columbia University, Dempewolf has participated in the Whitney Independent Studio Program and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. As a co-founder of Marginal Utility and a former member of the collaborative space Basekamp, Dempewolf is deeply engaged in collective and curatorial practices. David’s singular work investigates vision's nuanced mechanics—mimicking stereopsis, peripheral sight, global optic shifts, and mental imagery—while collaborations with Jazz musicians such as Jason Moran, Miguel Zenon, and Immanuel Wilkins demonstrate an expansive, interdisciplinary approach. Projects have been exhibited at venues including Greene Naftali, CAC Cincinnati, Locks Gallery, and international film festivals in Oberhausen and London.

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Alumni

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Postdoctoral Researchers

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Iftah Biran
Madhushree Chakrabarty
Alex Christensen
Evan Chen
Erin Conrad
Kohinoor Darda
Vicente Estrada-Gonzalez
Tilbe Göksun
Franziska Hartung
Gregor Hayn-Leichsenring
Stacey Humphries
Anja Jamrozik
Yoed Kenett
Nathaniel Klooster
Alexander Kranjec
Marguerite McQuire
Mariola Anna Paruzel-Czachura
Lorna Quandt
Raffaella Ricci
Gwenda Schmidt
Janice Snyder
Sara Waller
Christine Watson
Adam Weinberger
Steve Weisberg
Adam Woods
Cliff Workman
Denise Wu

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Visiting Researchers

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Eliza Alawi
Bree Chancellor
Alex Coburn
Roberta Daini
Vicente Estrada-Gonzalez
Ellie Garside
Annika Hillebrandt
Gyulten Hyusein
Ting Fung Ho
Mar Llorens Gamez
Juliane Mühlhaus
Alessandro Piedimonte
Diana Rosa-Leyra
Miriam Rosen
Fiete Schritt
Rosari Naveena Selvan
Hilary Serra
Sailee Shikhare
Guo Yuyue
Lauren McCollum
Sashank Prasad

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Medical Students

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Nadir Bilici
Maura Guyler
Mayank Patel
Dillan Villavisanis
Connor Wagner
Meagan Wu
Zack Zapatero

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Graduate Students

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Prin Amorapanth
Lindsey Bupp
Claire Dinh
Dexian He
Joe Kable
Sandeep Vaishnavi
Elaine Wencil

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Postbaccalaureate Students

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Daniel Badgio

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Undergraduate & High School Students

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Rodin Bantawa
Melissa Beswick
Mary Dumler
Noha El Toukhy
Raphael Englander
Georgia Gerike
Carla Goncalves
Adam Greenberg
Gürer Gündöndü
Geena Ianni
Farhan Jivraj
Adrianna Kashuba
Jonathan Kopelovich
Amy Krimm
Kate Lauber
Shirley Li
Izzy (Isabelle) Lee
Devi Majeske
Katsiaryna Malykhina
Sonali Mehta
Zuha Nasim
Antonio Nicosia
Elizabeth Olson
Michelle Oraa Ali
Kelly Porter
Fiona Shaw
Charlie Siegel
Billy Smith
William Sturgeon
Ben van Buren
Yuchao Wang
Nora (Junga) Youn
Alex Yu

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Lab Managers

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Angela Armstrong
Bianca Bromberger
Jesse Calhoun
Matt Lehet
Joe Ptacek
Emily Rogers
Feyza Sancar
Kenneth Thompson
Emily Urban
Page Widick
Ashley Wilson
Jonathan Yu

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Patient Coordinators

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Eileen Cardillo
Marianna Stark

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Artists

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Lucas Kelly
Judith Schaechter

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