Franco Pestilli
Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience (by courtesy) at the University of Texas at Austin. Franco holds a Ph.D. from New York University and a B.A. from the University of Rome La Sapienza. He completed postdoctoral training at Columbia University and Stanford University and earned tenure at Indiana University, Bloomington. His research spans multiple disciplines, including Psychology, Computer Science, Software Engineering, and Neuroscience. Franco is an affiliated member of the Center For Perceptual Systems, Center for Learning and Memory and serves on the Executive Board of the Center for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience. Franco is Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and Psychonomics Society and Editorial Board Member of the Springer:Nature Journals Scientific Data, and Scientific Reports. His accolades include the Microsoft Investigator Fellowship, gifts from the Kavli Foundation and the APS Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions. Franco is the Founder and Director of brainlife.io, a public platform for data management, standardization, and analysis. He also leads several international projects, including the Brain Research International Data Governance & Exchange (BRIDGE; braindatagovernance.org), which focuses on advancing data governance and sharing across countries. The Advanced Computational Neuroscience Network promotes transdisciplinary training in Neuroscience, Psychology, Engineering, and Computer Science, while the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) Connectivity Project is developing standards for brain connectivity studies. He has also led the development of (ezBIDS, a significant tool for brain imaging data standardization, impacting multiple universities and currently being used by centers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Franco serves as Chair of the Infrastructure Committee of the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility and is the past Chair of the International Brain Initiative Data Standards and Sharing Working Group. At The University of Texas, he teaches Data Science and Cognitive Neuroscience and has developed a Study Abroad Program in Cognitive Neuroscience in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition to teaching at UT Austin, Franco has lectured across the United States, including in Alabama, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and California, as well as internationally in Japan, Korea, Italy, France, the U.K., Nigeria, South Africa, the Netherlands, Canada, and Switzerland.
Team The following are the exceptional students, postdocs, staff members, and faculty colleagues whose dedication and expertise make our science possible.
Steven G. Hershman
Associate Professor of Practice (Informatics, Data Science, Data Standards and Sharing)
Alisha Flexwala
Undergraduate Research Assistant (Literature Review, Deep Learning Models)
Sohmee Kim
Undergraduate Research Assistant (Meta-Analysis, Tractography, 2024 Women In Neuroscience Fellow)
Community It takes the world to understand the brain, and the world is a village rich with people of different backgrounds.
A successful lab thrives when it embraces diverse ideas, cultures, and life experiences. Our Principal Investigator hails from Italy, and our team includes software engineers from Asia, Latin America, and North America. This positive mix of individuals working together fosters a collaborative environment that advances our understanding of the brain and enhances the work of scientists globally.
Engagement Inclusion and engagement mean being open and safe for all.
We are dedicated to engaging with all individuals interested in neuroscience, particularly those in communities that might otherwise lack access to these resources. Our lab's resources have been utilized in smaller U.S. colleges, as well as in Africa and Latin America, to teach neuroscience and neuroimaging to under-resourced communities.
Collaborators
Aina Puce
Eleanor Cox Riggs Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University
Together we are integrating MEG and EEG data processing streams on brainlife.io.
Sarah Heilbronner
Assistant professor University of Minnesota
Together we are working on understanding the connectivity of the Parietal cortex.
Damian Eke
Assistant Professor, University of Nottingham, UK
Ricardo Chavarriaga
Professor, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Switzerland
Fernanda Tovar Moll
MD/Phd, CEO D’Or Institute of Research and Education (IDOR), Brazil
Amadi Ihunwo
Professor, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa
Thomas Nichols
Professor, Oxford University, UK
Alexander Huth
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Computer Science, University of Texas
Ariel Rokem
Research Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Washington
Elizabeth Lippard
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Dell Medical Center University of Texas
Dan Stanzione
Associate Vice President for Research Executive Director, TACC
Chris Rorden
Professor and Endowed Chair of Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina
Russell Poldrack
Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University
Daniel J. McDonald
Associate Professor, Department of Statistics, The University of British Columbia
Together we are developing approaches to tractography methods optimization.
Nathalie George
Laboratory Director Paris Brain Institute
Together we are developing tools to lower entry barriers to processing electrophysiological data using brainlife.io.
Nicholas Port
Associate Professor of Vision Science and Neuroscience at Indiana University
Together we are trying to understand brain concussion using brainlife.io.
Wei Tang
Assistant Scientist, Department of Computer Science, Indiana University
Together we are developing approaches to tract the connectivity of the Parietal cortex using brainlife.io
Anastasia Yendiki
Associate Professor in Radiology, Harvard Medical School; Associate Investigator, Massachusetts General Hospital
Yaroslav Halchenko
Research Assistant Professor Dartmuth College
Together we are developing technology to connect data across the globe using DataLad.org and brainlife.io
Alumni
Daniel Levitas
Software Developer
After leaving our team Dan took on a Data Analyst position in North Carolina.
Annie Mackenzie
Project Manager (International Data Governance, Lab Management)
After leaving the lab Annie took on a position as Global Regulatory Writer.
Bradley Caron
Postdoctoral Fellow
After graduating from the lab Brad took on a position as a Translational Imaging Data Scientist at Novartis (Boston, MA).
Mohammed Mehboob
Research Assistant
After leaving the lab, Mohammed took a position as an Associate Consultant within Consulting at Adobe.
Cat Leal
Undergraduate Research Assistant (2023 Behavioral Data Science Intern)
After graduating from the lab Cat started a Master's in Data Science at The University of Texas at Austin.
Julia Guiomar (Guio) Niso Galán
CRCNS Research Scientist (MEG, EEG, Neuroinformatics)
After leaving the lab Guio started his group at Cajal Institute in Madrid.
Soichi Hayashi
Software Engineer
After leaving the lab Soichi took on a position as a Software Developer in a Fintech Company.
Sophia Vinci-Booher
NSF SBE Postdoctoral Researcher
After graduating from the lab, Sophia started her lab at Vanderbilt University.
Antonio Fernandez
NIH Postdoctoral Fellow.
After leaving the lab, Dr. Fernandez started working as UI/UX Researcher in the industry.
Sandra Hanekamp
Postdoctoral Fellow
After graduating from the lab, Sandra took a position at NordicNeuroLab.
Brent C. McPherson
Ph.D. student
After graduating from the lab, Brent took a Postdoctoral Researcher position at McGill University.
Daniel N. Bullock
Ph.D. student
After graduating from the lab, Dan took on a position as Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Minnesota.
Ilaria Sani
Ilaria was a visiting postdoc
Ilaria was visiting from the Laboratory of Winrich Freiwald at Rockefeller University. After visiting the lab, Ilaria took an Assitant Professor position at the University of Geneva.
Josiah Leong
Postdoc
After working in the lab, Josiah started his lab and became Assistant Professor in Psychology at the University of Arkansas.
Ricardo Fabrega
Undergraduate research assistant
After leaving the lab, Ricardo won a prestigious Medical Student Scholarship at the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.
Yiming Qian
Undergraduate research assistant.
After leaving the lab, Yiming started Graduate School at Penn State University.
Lindsey Kitchell
Ph.D. student
After leaving the lab, Lindsey took on a position as Senior Professional Scientist at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory.
Shiloh Echevarria-Cooper
Undergraduate research assistant
After leaving the lab, Shiloh started Graduate School at Northwestern University.
Aman Arya
Undergraduate research assistant, NSF Summer Intern for brainlife.io
After leaving the lab, Aman took a job at Amazon.
Cesar F. Caiafa
Visiting scientist
After working in the lab, Cesar returned to Argentina to work as at the Argentinean Radioastronomy Institute (IAR) and as an Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Buenos Aires.
