Team - Frohlich Lab

FLAVIO FROHLICH, PH.D. – PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Flavio’s goal is to revolutionize how we treat psychiatric illnesses. His vision is that understanding cortical state dynamics will enable the development of novel non-invasive brain stimulation paradigms that directly target pathological network dynamics. Flavio is convinced that such rational design of neurotherapeutics will open the door for individualized, highly effective brain stimulation in psychiatry. Flavio is passionate about combining different methodological approaches to scientific problems and hopes to establish the field of network neuroscience. Flavio's personal website is here and he maintains tacs.academy, an online resource about tACS. When Flavio is not busy in the lab (ever?), he enjoys being with his wife Anita and his four children (and future lab members).

AARJAV PATEL – UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Aarjav Patel is a first-year undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill. He is pursuing a B.S. in Neuroscience alongside Chemistry. As a research assistant, Aarjav is interested in learning about the applications of noninvasive neurostimulation with imaging techniques to treat psychiatric illnesses in the population. In his spare time, Aarjav enjoys playing basketball and ping-pong, swimming, and reading books.

ALLY REARDON – UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Ally Reardon is a second-year undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill. She is pursuing a B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry. Ally is a research assistant in the Frohlich lab and is interested in the relationship between neural frequencies and maladaptive cognitions. In her free time, Ally enjoys exercising, cooking, and watching crime shows.

AMBER MCFERREN – UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Amber McFerren is a first-year undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill. She is pursuing a B.S. in Neuroscience with a minor in Chemistry. As a Research Assistant in the Frohlich Lab, she is interested in the connection between neural oscillations and cognition. She is particularly fascinated by the implications of this connection in regards to potential psychiatric treatment. In her free time, Amber enjoys dancing, biking, and baking desserts.

ANITA FROHLICH, LL.M. - PROJECT MANAGER

Anita loves to plan and organize. She (mostly) manages to convert her husband’s passions and the kids’ energy into a reasonably structured routine. As a homeschooling mom, Anita knows how to see things through from the beginning to the end. And her background as a comparative lawyer helps Anita to build bridges and find creative solutions to apparently unsurmountable obstacles. Anita’s wish is to help the Frohlich lab achieve its goal by optimizing the use of time and resources. In her “free time” (an oxymoron for a mother of four kids!), Anita likes to play the cello and spend time in the garden.

CHRIS WALKER - POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR

Chris Walker earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. He is interested in understanding how cortical oscillations develop during adolescence in support of cognition and how disruptions in these processes contribute to mental illness. His long-term vision is to establish novel methods to identify adolescents who are at risk for developing mental illness so that we can intervene before the onset of major symptoms. Outside of the brain, Chris enjoys biking, experimenting with food through various cooking projects, and consuming all things speculative fiction.

DAVIN RAMMANI – UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Davin Rammani is a first-year undergraduate student at UNC. He is pursuing a B.S.P.H in Biostatistics with a double minor in Chemistry and Computer Science. As a research assistant, he is interested in the relationship that exists between neural oscillations and cognitive functions. In his free time, Davin enjoys playing the piano, running, and cooking.

ELISABETH PITROLO - UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Elisabeth Pitrolo is a first-year undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill. She is pursuing a double major B.S. in Neuroscience, a B.A. in Hispanic Linguistics, and a minor in Chemistry. She is a Research Assistant in Frohlich Lab, and is interested in the relationship between frequencies of neural oscillations and types of psychiatric diseases. In her free time, Elisabeth enjoys playing piano, singing, and exercising.

EMMA MILLIGAN – UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Emma Milligan is a sophomore undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill. She is pursuing a B.S. in Neuroscience with a double minor in Chemistry and Spanish for the Medical Professions. As a research assistant in the Frohlich Lab, she is interested in the connections between neural oscillations and working memory. She is particularly interested in the applications this research has on psychiatric treatment. In her free time, Emma enjoys cooking, spending time with friends, hiking, and painting.

JUSTIN RIDDLE, PH.D. - POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR

Justin Riddle graduated with a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. He is studying the mechanistic role of neural oscillations in cognition. He uses noninvasive brain stimulation concurrent with neuroimaging to analyze the network level organization of the brain as human subjects engage in cognitive control. Justin hopes that his research will provide crucial scientific groundwork for the development of new brain stimulation treatments in psychiatry. In his free time, Justin is an avid yoga practitioner, board gamer, and consciousness enthusiast.

LAUREN SIDELINGER - UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Lauren Sidelinger is a first-year undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill. She is pursuing a B.S. in Neuroscience with a minor in Chemistry. As a research assistant, she is interested in the role neural oscillations play in the development of psychiatric illnesses. Furthermore, she is fascinated by how neurostimulation works with neural oscillations in order to treat maladaptive cognition in these disorders. In her free time, Lauren likes to sing, play video games, and spend time with her friends and family.

NIVI RAMASAMY - UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Nivi Ramasamy is a first-year undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill. She is pursuing a B.S. in Neuroscience with a minor in Chemistry. Nivi is a research assistant at the Frohlich Lab and is helping investigate the relationship between neural oscillations and animal behavior during an attentional task. Her research interests lie in cognitive neuroscience and she loves playing the violin, trying new foods, and spending time with family and friends.

RACHEL FORCE - POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR

Rachel dedicated her career to furthering our understanding of the brain mechanisms involved in the experience of mental illness. With a PhD in the Biology of Psychopathology from the University of Minnesota and 20 years of experience in clinical research Rachel is excited about furthering the development of novel non-invasive brain stimulation methods to reduce symptomology and expand our understanding of how brain oscillation patterns may indicate risk for future pathology. Rachel is the Director of Clinical Trials for the Carolina Center and also enjoys mentoring undergraduate research assistants. Outside of work, Rachel keeps her brain challenged raising two elementary aged kids, trail-running, and learning how to contra-dance.

ROHAN PATEL - UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Rohan Patel is a first-year undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill. He is pursuing a B.S. in Biology with a minor in statistics. Rohan is a research assistant at the Frohlich Lab and is interested in the extents tDACS and TACS can be used in top-down approaches to learn about neural circuits. In his free time, Rohan enjoys reading, playing video games, and contributing to troubleshooting forums for various open-source programs.

SUSANNE RADTKE-SCHULLER, PH.D. - ASSOCIATE RESEARCH SCIENTIST

Susanne focuses on the question how neuroanatomical structure is linked to neurophysiological function and especially what is the 'hardware' underlying behavior and cognitive processing in the brain. She is convinced that this is essential to understand brain processes in healthy and pathological states.

SYDNEY RUCKER - UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Sydney is a senior undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill. She is pursuing a B.S. in Exercise and Sports Science with a minor in Neuroscience and Chemistry. As a research assistant, Sydney is investigating the connection between neural oscillations and animal behavior during an attentional task. She is interested in the implications of these findings in regards to the progression of clinical treatment of cognitive abnormalities and network disorders, particularly those involving disparities in attentional modulation. In her free time, Sydney enjoys running, yoga, sports-watching, the occasional kick-around of a soccer ball, and traveling with friends and family.

TREVOR MCPHERSON - POST-BACCALAUREATE RESEARCHER

Trevor is curious about the cadence that underlies our thoughts and actions. He graduated with a B.S. in Biology, a B.A. in Music, and a minor in Neuroscience from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2018. Trevor is passionate about anything periodic, whether this involves music or the brain! Previously he has examined individual differences in rhythmic entailment (the ability to maintain a beat), as well as how playing music (as opposed to listening) differentially modulates the autonomic nervous system. Currently, he utilizes rhythmic TMS to determine the how neural oscillations coordinate working memory and information processing. When not thinking about the rhythms of the brain, Trevor can be found composing musical rhythms or shredding the rhythms of the ocean (surfing!!)

WEI (ANGEL) HUANG - GRADUATE STUDENT

Angel received her MPA in Health Policy from New York University and did post-baccalaureate studies in Biological Sciences at Northwestern University. Her research focuses on studying brain oscillations that relate to higher cognitive functions such as attention. She is especially interested in how the disruption of these oscillations may result in cognitive abnormalities such as attention deficits in autism. She is currently working on developing computational models to simulate thalamo-cortical interactions that are important to attention modulation. Angel is interested in combining computational modeling, machine learning with animal behavioral and in-vivo electrophysiological experiments to study brain oscillations. In her spare time, Angel enjoys playing badminton, hiking, music, playing guitar, and studying artificial intelligence

WILLIAM STANFORD - GRADUATE STUDENT

William Stanford is a first year Ph. D. Student in the Neuroscience program with undergraduate degrees in Math and Neuroscience from the University of Texas at Dallas. He’s interested in applying newer frameworks emerging from the field of Network Control Theory to inform hypotheses about how controlled perturbations of brain networks will effect the underlying dynamics and topology of those networks. Additionally, he’s more broadly interested in top-down control methods of morphogenesis, genome editing, and biologically inspired artificial intelligence. In his free time he enjoys rock climbing, reading, and losing track of time working on an interesting project

ZHOUXIAO LU - UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Zhouxiao Lu is a junior at UNC Chapel Hill. She is pursuing a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Chemistry. As a research assistant at the Frohlich Lab, Zhouxiao is interested in investigating the neural mechanisms for cognitive behavior. In her leisure time, Zhouxiao is fond of making handcrafts, designing circuits, and reading.

​FLAVIO FROHLICH, PH.D. – PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR