Personnel

Anjan Chatterjee

Professor of Neurology, Psychology, and Architecture
 anjan@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

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.

CV for Anjan Chatterjee

Eileen Cardillo

Associate Director
 eica@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Eileen Cardillo, DPhil is a cognitive neuroscientist and Associate Director of the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics. Her research focuses on the cognitive and affective impacts of art and aesthetic experiences and their benefits to health and wellbeing. Other areas of interest include the psychological and neural changes associated with contemplative practice, and other routes to mystical experience. Before joining the PCfN, Eileen completed her postdoctoral training at Penn and UC-San Diego and served as the Patient Coordinator of the Focal Lesion Database at Penn’s Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. She received her doctorate in Experimental Psychology while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and her B.S. in Biological Psychology at the College of William and Mary. She is co-editor of Brain, Beauty, and Art: Essays Bringing Neuroaesthetics in Focus. Preoccupations outside the lab include chasing after her two kids and working towards a Master of Divinity at the University of Sufism. 

Bella Bobrow

Center Manager
 isabella.bobrow@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

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.

Jeffrey Vadala

Researcher
 jeffrey.vadala@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

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.

Soma Chaudhuri

Postdoctoral Researcher
 soma.chaudhuri@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

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. 

Vasiliki Meletaki

Postdoctoral Researcher
 vasiliki.meletaki@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

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.

Hannah Merseal

Postdoctoral Researcher
 hannah.merseal@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
 Hannah Merseal Website

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.

Raphael Englander

Undergraduate Researcher
 rapheng@sas.upenn.edu

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. 

Darlene Leohansson

Undergraduate Researcher
 darleo@sas.upenn.edu

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.

June Wang

Undergraduate Researcher
 junew@sas.upenn.edu

Nathan Yu

Undergraduate
 nyu422@sas.upenn.edu

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.

David Dempewolf

Artist-in-Residence
 david@marginalutility.org
 David Dempewolf Website

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.