Lab Members
Principal Investigator | Emily S. Finn (she/her) Emily is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College. She completed her Ph.D. in neuroscience at Yale, and her postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Mental Health. Before that, she received a B.A. in linguistics, also from Yale. Emily’s work is focused on individual variability in brain activity and behavior, especially as it relates to appraisal of ambiguous information under naturalistic conditions. When not science-ing, she can often be found doing something outdoors, playing guitar (poorly), or summoning the motivation to exercise. [CV] - [Google Scholar] - [Email] |
 | Qi (Kay) Liang (she/her) Kay is a postdoctoral fellow in the FINN lab. Before Dartmouth, she received her B.S. in Psychology and Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience from East China Normal University. Kay has always been fascinated by the social nature of humans. In the FINN lab, she would like to learn how individuals perceive and represent social information under their own biases. Outside the lab, Kay enjoys reading sci-fi novels, stepping on snow, and catching Pokémon around every corner. [Google Scholar] - [Email] |
 | Clara Sava-Segal (she/her) Clara is a Cognitive Neuroscience graduate student in the FINN Lab. Before Dartmouth, she got her Bachelor’s degree from UChicago in 2018 and then worked as a research assistant at Stanford’s Laboratory for Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience. Broadly, Clara is interested in how we integrate information with our existent knowledge, and how neural patterns are formed, modified and updated with experiences. Specifically, she is interested in how certain experiences and traits drive differences in behavior and neural activity across individuals and is excited to use naturalistic stimuli to investigate these questions. Outside the lab, Clara can be found painting, reading, hiking, or doing science education outreach. [Google Scholar] - [Email] |
 | Thomas Botch (he/him) Tommy is a Cognitive Neuroscience graduate student in the FINN Lab. He received a B.S. in Psychobiology in 2017 from UCLA. After graduating, he worked as a research assistant for UCLA Center of Behavioral and Addiction Medicine, a cheesemonger, and, penultimately, a lab manager for the Robertson Lab. Broadly, Tommy is interested in how differences in brain and behavior drive individual experience under ambiguous circumstances. Specifically, how do state- and trait-based factors, across neurotypical and neurodiverse populations, influence the processing of information and resulting behavior. Outside of lab, Tommy enjoys hiking, playing music, cooking, and petting animals that cross his path. [Google Scholar] - [Email] |
 | Kathryn O'Nell (she/her) Katie is a graduate student in the FINN Lab. She holds an undergraduate degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT and a master's degree from Oxford in Experimental Psychology. Her main interests center on social cognition, particularly how we represent others' minds in terms of social concepts and categories -- and how traditional narrative forms drive the creation of these concepts. Outside of the lab, Katie enjoys hiking, puzzle hunts, and proselytizing about the wonders of public libraries to anyone who will listen. [Google Scholar] - [Email] |
 | Zach Paris (he/him) Zach is a graduate student in the FINN lab. He got his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Princeton in 2022. Since then he worked as a software engineer at Google for two years before finding himself back in research working with Uri Hasson’s lab at Princeton prior to starting at Dartmouth. His primary interests lie in social cognition and how we can utilize modern ML techniques to build better models and understanding of naturalistic conversation behavior in humans, and whether they can aid in understanding emergent social phenomena. Outside of the lab, Zach enjoys running, climbing, and pestering people to let him play music with them. [Email] |
 | Tiffany Koome (she/hers) Tiffany is an Undergraduate research assistant in the FINN Lab. She plans on Majoring in Neuroscience and Minoring in either studio art or earth sciences. On campus, she is involved in the ASL Club as well as the child care centre where she spends her time doing arts & crafts and taking care of 2 Year Olds. In her free time, Tiffany enjoys reading, going to cafes to curate optimum study vibes and sleeping. She hopes to pursue a career in the medical field, working in countries that have limited access to healthcare. |
 | Kalina Duncheva (she/hers) Kalina is an undergraduate research assistant at the FINN Lab. She is a ’27 majoring in Neuroscience and Computer Science. On campus, she spends her weekends going on trips with the Dartmouth Outing Club; she records those and other adventures on her Admissions blog “People Places Pines,” and she begins her days nerding about anything French with her adorable French drillees. Outside of class, Kalina loves talking to imaginary people (she writes fantasy novels), and she loves talking to very real people about her baby sister, her dog and cats, and all the cool things she’s read in books. |
 | Eli Bailit (he/him) Eli is an undergraduate research assistant in the FINN Lab. He is majoring in Cognitive Science and minoring in Hispanic Studies. On campus, he is involved in the Dartmouth Cords (Music Director), Sexual Assault Peer Alliance, Phi Delta Alpha (Wellness Chair, Social Chair), and Dartmouth Hillel. In his free time, Eli loves to arrange music, eat fruity pebbles, and gab with his friends. |
 | Crosby Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (who goes by Crosby) is a full-time Bernedoodle and alternates between two alter egos, "Muppet" and "Monster". Crosby recently graduated from the White Mountain College for Pets as vale-dog-torian (class size: 2). He is responsible for making sure Emily gets her daily dose of fresh air, no matter the weather, and can often be found chewing rugs or terrorizing plants. |
Lab Alumni
Postdoctoral Fellows
 | Rekha Varrier, postdoc 2020-2024 now postdoc at the University of Bonn |
 | Peng Liu, postdoc 2022-2023 now postdoc at the University of Florida |
 | Clare Grall, postdoc 2020-2022 now Behavioral Researcher at StoryFit |
 | Hongji Kim, visiting PhD student 2021-2022 current PhD student in the Cocoan Lab at SungKyunKwan University in South Korea |
 | Eneko Uruñuela, visiting PhD student 2022 current PhD student in the Signal Processing in Neuroimaging Lab at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language in Spain |
 | Dallas Brodersen, lab manager 2024-2025 |
 | Zishan Su, full-time RA 2023-2025 |
 | Tory Benson, lab manager/full-time RA 2023-2024 current PhD student at Rutgers |
 | Jordan Selesnick, full-time RA 2022-2023 |
 | Josie Equita, lab manager 2020-2022 |
Ash Chinta, undergraduate RA 2022-2025
now research assistant in the Turk-Browne Lab at Yale
Ellie Oyebode, undergraduate RA 2025
Sofia Yawand-Wossen, undergraduate RA 2022-2025
now analyst at Morgan Stanley
Brooke Moore, undergraduate RA 2024-2025
David Igbalajobi, undergraduate RA 2024-2025
Georgia Nieh, undergraduate RA 2024-2025
Anna Katherine Ray, undergraduate RA 2022-2024 & honors thesis advisee
now at UCL’s MSc in Social Cognition program for the 2026–2027
Caroline Balick, undergraduate RA 2021-2024
Lenny Perez, undergraduate RA 2024
Megan Leung, undergraduate RA 2021-2024
now Digital Electronics Design Engineer at The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory
Evan Bloch, undergraduate RA 2023-2024 & honors thesis advisee
Eliana Stanford, undergraduate RA 2023-2024
Evan Lai, undergraduate RA 2023
Robin Sandell, part-time RA 2023
now research assistant in the Brain Networks Lab at UCSF
Alison Sasaki, undergraduate RA 2022-2023
Ella Russ, undergraduate RA 2021-2023
Hannah Nicolson, undergraduate RA 2022-2023
Shannon Zeilman, undergraduate RA 2022-2023
Jonathan Pazen, undergraduate RA 2022
Ashna Kumar, undergraduate RA 2021-2022
Katherine Bartolino, undergraduate RA 2021-2022
Payton Weiner, undergraduate RA 2021