Peter Mende-Siedlecki
Lab Director
Peter received his BA from Columbia University, his PhD from Princeton University, and his postdoctoral training at NYU. When he isn't rooting for Minnesota sports teams or going on and on about how great the Upper West Side of Manhattan is, Peter takes a dynamic, multi-level approach to interactions between social perception, social cognition, and social identity.
yanzi Huang
Graduate Student
Yanzi Huang (she/they) received her BS in Applied Psychology with First Class Honor from Hong Kong Baptist University in 2018 and her MA in General Psychology from New York University in 2020. Prior to her PhD training, she worked at Purdue University as the lab manager of the Social Cognition of Social Change Lab (PI: Dr. Erin Hennes) from 2020 to 2021 and then as a project coordinator for a NIH-funded Project (PIs: Drs. Erin Hennes & Sean Lane) from 2021 to 2022. Motivated by her identities and experiences, Yanzi’s research centers on social cognition, social justice, and intersectionality. Specifically, she studies 1) how top-down influences (e.g., stereotypes, attitudes, ideologies) shape group-based social perceptions, and 2) how such biased perceptions contribute to discrimination, inequality, and injustice.
Gavin mullin
Graduate Student
Gavin (he/him/any) received his BS in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Kansas in 2022. He is interested in how groups, identities, and person perception influence social behavior and decision-making, especially towards and within the LGBTQ+ community. Outside of the lab, you can find Gavin spending time with his two cats, playing the clarinet, or engaging in anything art related (drawing, painting, drag, photography).
Samantha Haas
4+1 Masters Student
Samantha (she/her) is a Master’s student working in the M-S lab towards her thesis, which focuses on the perception of pain and sadness both in targets whose appearance conforms to the gender binary as well as targets appearing ambiguous in gender. Her research interests include perception of others based on sexuality, gender, and race, and she hopes to explore how mental health may be improved by combating discrimination occurring at a subconscious level.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
We have a truly fantastic team of talented undergraduate research assistants who work on various projects in the lab, with weekly duties ranging from creating new stimuli, to running behavioral participants, to assisting with data collection at the CBBI scanner next door. Right now, we're thrilled to have the following folks working with us:
Livi Calais
Eryn Cohen
Natalie Medico
Theresa Miller
Ava Storz
Aliya Williams
LAB ALUMNI
graduate student alumni
Alexis Drain
Alexis obtained her PhD in social psychology at the University of Delaware. She received her BA from Cal State Fullerton, where she researched how eyebrows contribute to face recognition. Her research interests focus on understanding intergroup conflict. She is always listening to a podcast and looking for new plants to nurture.
Azaadeh Goharzad
Azaadeh obtained her PhD in social psychology at the University of Delaware. She is interested social perception, specifically how group identities inform impression formation as well as the behavioral and structural consequences of these impressions. She now works as a scientific software engineering generalist at the Child Mind Institute.
Secondary graduate student alumni
Robert Backer
Robert obtained his PhD in psychology at University of Delaware, studying social neuroscience. His research interests are inspired by identity, as it interacts with dynamic psychological processes, having implications for wellbeing. He received his Master's in psychology from UPenn, and prior to his research career, ran a professional coaching practice spanning New York and Philadelphia. CV
Lab Manager and post-bac Alumni
Patrick Reyes
Patrick is currently a social psychology PhD student and NSF GRFP recipient at Duke University where he works with Dr. Cristina Salvador. His research focuses on cultural neuroscience, and how sociocultural factors shape the brain and cognition.
Azar Tuerxuntuoheti
Azar is currently a social psychology PhD student at Rutgers University. He works with Dr. Gandalf Nicolas, and is interested in social cognition, group membership, bias and stereotyping, and face perception.
Jingrun Lin
Jingrun Lin is currently a clinical psychology PhD student at the University of Virginia working with Dr. James Coan . Her research interest focuses on emotion perception and regulation, and more particularly, perceiver- and target- level factors that shape pain experiences and perception.
Jennie (wen) Qu-Lee
Jennie managed the Mende-Siedlecki lab from 2016 to 2018. She is currently a PhD student at NYU, where she works with Dr. Emily Balcetis. Jennie's research interests range from the psychological and neurocognitive mechanisms of impression forming to intergroup decision-making. website
Research Assistant Alumni
Olivia Stibolt ('18) is a cognitive neuroscience PhD student at Florida International University studying in the Neural Dynamics of Control Lab (PI: Dr. George Buzzell).
Sloan Ferron ('19) is a clinical research coordinator at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center.
Dani Schwartz ('19) is currently a User Experience Researcher.
Christine Bockrath (‘23) is working as a medical assistant.
Erika Burley
Amanda Campanaro
Cara Crosby
Lauren Davis
Aislinn DeSieghardt
Edoardo Frezza
Chris Gibbons
Grace Gleason
Nicole Kozak
Alex Klysa
Dustin Prusisz
Paula Salvador
Cherry Tomatsu
Leana Owens
Bria Turner
Daysi Torres-Vanegas
Camryn Isaksen
Abeer Jafil
Sophia Crisomia
Katelyn Ohl
Ogechi Okorie
Julian Urbina
Amanda Bowman
Erica Grening