RADLab People
RADLab Director: Dr. Gaurav Suri
Dr. Gaurav Suri is a computational neuroscientist and an experimental psychologist. He studies the brain mechanisms that shape human cognitions, emotions, and actions. He is interested in examining the proposition that the mind emerges from the interaction of simple processing units and that these interactions can be modeled using neural networks.
Gaurav is an Associate Professor at San Francisco State University and a Distinguished Scientist (Visiting) at The Center of Affective Science at Stanford University.
Gaurav obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University. He also has an M.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Stanford University.
Gaurav is the recipient of numerous awards, honors, fellowships, and research grants. His research has been published in leading journals, including Psychological Review, Nature, Trends in Cognitive Science, Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and The Journal of Mathematical Psychology.
Gaurav came to academics as the 'second innings' of his career. Before academics, Gaurav was a Managing Director at Deloitte Consulting. He is also the founding member of two successful entrepreneurial ventures.
Gaurav is a co-author of the prize-winning novel A Certain Ambiguity (Suri & Bal, Princeton, 2007). Along with Jay McClelland, he is the co-author of the forthcoming book The Emergent Mind: How Intelligence Arises in People and Machines (Suri and McClelland, Basic Books, Scheduled for Fall 2025).
RADLab Manager
Catalina Phe
Catalina is a second-year graduate student in the Mind, Brain, & Behavior program. Her involvement with the RADLab began during her undergraduate studies at San Francisco State University, where Dr. Suri’s cognitive neuroscience course sparked her interest in the field. Catalina’s research focuses on emotion regulation (ER), particularly if individuals can overcome habitual choice preferences. Her work explores the boundary conditions of ER, with implications for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). She is also interested in UX research and understanding behavioral needs to bridge psychological science and user experience design. Outside of the lab, Catalina enjoys exploring the city, learning about history, capturing moments on her film camera, and attending live music shows at local venues.
Senior Research Associate
Daniela Ibarra
Daniela is a second-year graduate student in the Mind, Brain, & Behavior program. She is in the final stages of preparing a manuscript for submission to an academic journal, based on her first independent research project investigating the cognitive phenomenon known as the decoy effect—how irrelevant alternatives can influence decision-making. Daniela programmed a computerized perceptual discrimination task using PsychoPy to explore the underlying mechanisms driving this effect. Her broader research interests include understanding the neural and molecular circuits that underlie behavior, particularly when dysfunction in these systems contributes to psychiatric illness or maladaptive behaviors.
Emily Wang
Em is a second-year graduate student in the Mind, Brain, & Behavior program. Their focus is on decision-making, biases, and data science; they also have experience in and actively practice in Python and R. They have aspirations to become a data scientist and researcher, as well as obtaining their PhD one day. Beyond the lab, they enjoy 3D modeling and digital art and fantasizes about more green energy bills being passed through the governments.
Daniel Licea
Daniel is a second-year graduate student in the Mind, Brain, & Behavior program. His research interests involve the decision-making processes of first responders in high stress environments. Prior to studying at SFSU, Daniel served four years in the Marines, and another three years as a wild land firefighter with the US Forest Service. Outside of school he enjoys running, going to concerts, and taking his dogs to the beach and on long hikes.
Junior Research Associate
Takuya Miwa
Takuya is a first-year graduate student in the Mind, Brain, and Behavior program. He is currently researching the role that emotion plays in goal-oriented behavior, such as persistence and initiation. He aims to contribute to existing models of goal pursuit and self-regulation, with the broader goal of understanding how affective processes can encourage adaptive behavior. His fields of interest include emotions, decision-making, and psycholinguistics.
Radhika Yadav
Radhika is a first-year graduate student in the Mind, Brain, & Behavior program. Her research interests include researching long-term, self-reliant, and feasible interventions for various psychological disorders. She is interested in using tools like AI and large language models (LLMs) to create scalable solutions. She likes being in the lab to learn from members about the various mechanisms behind psychological behaviors. Outside of research, she loves thrifting, crafts, concerts, and walking through new neighborhoods.
Adriana Rodriguez
Adriana is a first-year graduate researcher in the Mind, Brain, and Behavior program at San Francisco State University. Her work examines how humans and artificial agents choose between emotion regulation strategies under varying levels of emotional intensity. She began studying decision making in the RAD Lab as an undergraduate, where she earned her B.A. in Psychology. Her broader interests include cognitive neuroscience, computational modeling, and the intersection of cognition and artificial intelligence. Outside of the lab, Adriana enjoys caring for her growing collection of houseplants and exploring Bay Area trails
Mark Kim
Mark is a first-year graduate student in the Mind, Brain, and Behavior program at San Francisco State University. His research is driven by a deep curiosity about the mechanics of learning, goal pursuit, and consciousness. In the RADLab, he investigates biologically plausible learning mechanisms, such as Direct Feedback Alignment (DFA) and Behavioral Time-Scale Synaptic Plasticity (BTSP), as alternatives to backpropagation in neural networks. Before his graduate studies, Mark had a diverse career as an entrepreneur and served for six years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He brings a multidisciplinary background to the lab, holding previous degrees in Data Science & AI, Computer Science, and Mathematics. Outside of the lab, he is an avid snowboarder who also enjoys cycling, running, and hiking.
Jessica Bowlus
Jessica is a first-year graduate student in RADLab and a first-year graduate student in the Mind, Brain, and Behavior program. Her research interests include decision-making, cognitive biases, and learning. Outside of lab, she enjoys playing sports, reading, and hanging out with her pets.
Jasmine Chuey
Jasmine Chuey is a first year in the MBB program. She was inspired to pursue research from her time at UCSB working in the Miller Memory which has led to her interest in memory and decision-making. Besides doing homework or working at the Pete’s Coffee in the library, Jasmine enjoys playing video games or watching YouTube.
Jahleel Norwood
Research Associate
Bryce Horvath
Bryce is a third-year undergraduate student working as a research assistant in the RADLab. They are interested in the future application of probabilistic category learning tasks and the function of implicit memory. Following their undergraduate degree, they plan on pursuing a PhD. Outside of their education, Bryce enjoys traditional rock climbing and playing guitar.
Talia Rubinstein
Talia is a fourth-year undergraduate student working as a research assistant at RADLab. She is studying psychology and holistic health and hopes to be a wonderful clinical therapist someday. Outside of her education, she loves to be outside, roller skate, and craft.
Jesus Salcedo
Jesus is a third-year undergraduate student majoring in psychology and minoring in biology. He's a research assistant at the RADLab helping accentuate the focus on emotion regulation methods. He likes to read psychology books, and hopes to be an impactful clinical therapist someday for this community.
Sophie Pintner
Sophie is a post grad student in the field of Psychology working as a research assistant in RADLab. She has a passion for understanding what motivates people and drives them to make the decisions that they do. She hopes to gain experience in research and methodology from a psychological standpoint. Outside of the lab, Sophie enjoys playing video games, hiking, and spending time with friends and family.
RADLab Alumni
Madeline Holcomb
Madeline graduated with a Masters of Arts in Psychological Science in 2022 and summa cum laude in 2019 with a B.A. in Psychology. Her research focuses on psychological inertia, specifically examining the driving factors behind the phenomenon. Her other research interests include temporal discounting, emotion regulation, and social facilitation. In Madeline's free time she enjoys photography, spending time in Golden Gate Park, and trying new restaurants in the city.
Minjeong (MJ) Kim
MJ graduated with a Masters of Arts in Psychological Science in 2022. She is interested in the mechanism of bias-free decision making algorithms. She is currently working on designing a course for the intersection of data science and psychology. She is also a cat-lover.
Anna Sarkisyan
Anna graduated with a Masters of Arts in Psychological Science in 2022. Her research interests include implicit learning and memory. She is specifically interested in how these processes work with associative tasks such as the weather prediction task. Anna enjoys staying active, spend time with loved ones, and spending time with her dog.
Fuzhe Xie
Fuzhe graduated with a Social Psychology M.A. in 2021. Fuzhe's research focused on emotion regulation and decision making. She is interested in why people choose specific emotion regulation strategy in different situations and how children learn to express and regulate emotion. Fuzhe's thesis project investigated eye-movement pattern during decision making process of two emotion regulation strategies. She likes cooking and climbing.
Martha Maldonado-Clark
Martha graduated with a Social Psychology M.A. in 2021. Martha's research interests surrounded emotion regulation and emotion regulation choice, decision making, and behavioral economics. She investigated how culture intersects with each of these concepts. In her time at SFSU, she worked on a project to investigate if the anchoring phenomenon could be eliminated. Martha likes to spend her free time with friends, exploring the outdoors, spending time at the beach, traveling and trying new cuisines.
Swati Ramnath
Swati graduated with a Social Psychology M.A. in 2021. Swati's research focused on understanding ways in which psychology can be combined with technology to provide innovative solutions for real-world problems. Her thesis project investigated depression apps in India. Her other interests include psychological inertia and framing effect.
Laura Kosbie
Laura graduated with a Social Psychology M.A. in 2020. Laura studied the phenomenon of decision paralysis that accompanies a decision between two desired alternatives. Her thesis project looked at potential drivers of decision paralysis, including dispositional differences such as levels of anxiety and regret aversion. Laura set out to create a model of decision making that could predict when decision paralysis would occur based on the nature of the unique decision environment and the unique variables the individual brings to the decision.
Courtney Ko
Courtney graduated with a Social Psychology M.A. in 2020. Courtney was a graduate student in the Mind, Brain, and Behavior Program. Her main interests during her time at SFSU were computational psychology, emotion, and decision-making. She worked on building a neural network based on how children gradually learn emotion categories. She also investigated how emotion regulation is heavily influenced by expectations.
Ashish Mehta
Ashish graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from SFSU. He has a wide range of interests, among which include studying the contextual factors that give rise to different forms of emotion regulation, as well as the consequences that result from such decisions. Ashish is also enchanted by the magic of statistics and computational modeling. Starting Fall 2019, Ashish is pursuing his Ph.D. in psychology at Stanford University
Alyssa Christine Wicker
Alyssa graduated from the Psychology Master’s program in the Social, Personality and Affective Sciences concentration in 2018. Her Master’s thesis examined the contexts in which psychological inertia is most influential. Alyssa is pursuing her PhD in Marketing at U.C. Riverside.
Gerald Young
Gerald graduated with a Social Psychology M.A. in 2018. His research focuses on understanding why there are cross-cultural differences in emotion regulation outcomes and identifying the mechanisms driving these effects. His thesis is specifically investigating these questions with respect to depressive rumination. Gerald is pursuing his PhD in psychology at U.C. Berkeley.
Shanyu Kates
Shanyu graduated with a Social Psychology M.A in 2018. Her research investigates how emotion regulation can intervene the process between emotions and judgment and decision making. Her thesis project examined whether cognitive reappraisal promotes conflict resolution during anger experiences. Shanyu is pursuing her PhD in psychology at Boston University.
Gretchen Andazola
Gretchen graduated with a Developmental Psychology M.A. in 2018 from San Francisco State University. She graduated cum laude from San Jose State University with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. Her research focuses on positive parenting, and on exploring the various ways in which parents positively influence their children’s development.
Lena Ryoo
Lena was a graduate student in Developmental Psychology Master's program. Her research interests include decision making in contexts of emotion and emotion regulation, effects of chronic interpersonal trauma, change in self-concept, and attachment. She is also interested in education equity, public education, and social justice. Most recently she has worked on a project involving emotion regulation in naturalistic, recurrent contexts.
Lily Slater
Lily graduated from the Social, Personality and Affective Science program. She is interested in the cognitive mechanisms involved in attention, judgement and decision making and how these processes play out in behavior. Her current research is examining mind wandering as well as investigating the cognitive parallels between Large Language Models and human behavior. In her spare time, Lily enjoys cooking up a feast with her family and friends.
Erin Courtney
Erin graduated from the Social, Personality, and Affective Science program. He is interested in decision-making, belief formation, and emotion regulation. His current research focuses on emotion regulation choice, specifically investigating the implicit preferences for particular emotion regulation strategies. In his free time, Erin enjoys body surfing, hiking, and reading.
Serena Rayan
Serena graduated with a Bachelor’s in Health Science with Summa cum laude honors and honors in the major. Her research interests are in anchoring and consumer behavior. Serena is currently researching the role of extreme anchors in anchoring bias. Outside of research, she enjoys spending time outdoors, reading and traveling.
Jesse Simnegar
Jesse received an M.A. in the Social, Personality and Affective Science program. He is interested in decision-making, and particularly in the biases that result in irrational decisions, as well as the mechanisms behind them. Jesse enjoys spending quality time with family and friends, hiking, camping, and playing chess.
Kathy Wannaviroj
Kathy obtained her M.A. in the Mind, Brain and Behavior program. She is interested in neural networks and understanding the processes of the brain. Her current research investigates backpropagation and contrasting other learning rules that train neural networks. In her free time, she enjoys going on hikes with friends and exploring different bakeries in the bay area.
Ali Ziaee
Ali graduated from the Mind, Brain, and Behavior program at SFSU. Their field of research revolves around identifying the barriers to evidence-based psychotherapy, with a special emphasis on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
Maggie Vashel
Maggie graduated from the Mind, Brain and Behavior (MBB) program. Her research is focused on the mechanism for concepts and categories that are learned on-the-fly. She is also interested in attention, self-control, implicit learning and using computational modeling. Prior to starting at SFSU, Maggie worked in data analytics in health care, with her most recent role as the senior director of a large analytic consulting team. She has a husband, a daughter in middle school, and a pit bull mix, and enjoys playing pickleball and banjo.
Rashmi Bhuyan
Rashmi graduated from the Mind, Brain, and Behavior Concentration. Her research interest includes examining emotional inertia and the change in affective trajectories. In her free time, Rashmi enjoys reading books and exploring the city.
Richard Tian
Richard graduated from the Mind, Brain, and Behavior program. He is interested in decision-making, memories, and emotions. His current research project focuses on the impairment of emotions, specifically in a subclinical personality trait known as Alexithymia. He enjoys watching movies and TV shows.
Caitlin Claunch
Caitlin graduated from the Mind,Brain, & Behavior program. She is interested in studying cognitive affective processing and neural networks. Her current research examines the capabilities of a multimodal large language model, Microsoft Copilot, to match dimensions of human affective responses to images-specifically valence and arousal. Outside the lab, Caitlin enjoys running, pole dancing, and spending time with family and friends (preferably over delicious food)!
Kae Lee
Kae graduated from the Mind, Brain, & Behavior (MBB) program. They are interested in abnormal psychology, with an emphasis on cognition, and its resulting effect on a person's behavior/decision making. They are currently working on a project that puts a spotlight on ADHD and mind wandering, with the hope of furthering research into the relationship between ADHD and mind wandering, while continuing to hone their skills in preparation for future doctoral interests in clinical psychology and aspiring professorship. When not sitting in front of a computer, Kae can be usually found wearing an apron in the kitchen as a passionate home cook & baker, or writing music while sitting at the piano as a hobbyist composer.
RADLab Past Members
2022-2023
2023-2024
2024-2025
RADLab socials
A sketch of a RADLab hangout done by Em Wang (first-year graduate student)
