Meet the Team
Principal Investigator
Travis E. Baker, PhD
Associate Professor
Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience
Rutgers University
Email: travis.e.baker@rutgers.edu
Room: 307D
Tel: 973-353-35485
Research Interests: The overarching goal of Dr. Baker’s research program is to understand the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie goal-directed navigation, how to empirically identify and characterize these functions in the brain, and how these functions are disrupted in clinical populations (e.g. addictions, affective disorders, neurodegenerative disorders). He has adopted a variety of empirical approaches to investigate these functions, including genetics, electroencephalography, event-related brain potentials, functional magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion magnetic resonance imaging, and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Ultimately, Dr. Baker hopes that his research will converge to help improve psychiatric care.
Background: Born in Canada, Travis Baker earned his PhD in 2012 from the University of Victoria in the Brain and Cognitive Science program under the supervision of Dr. Clay Holroyd. He also holds a Masters of Science degree in Experimental Neuropsychology (University of Victoria) and received a B.A. (with distinction: Psychology) from Vancouver Island University. Prior to joining Rutgers University faculty, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Montreal Neurological Institute in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery under the supervision of Dr. Alain Dagher, and at CHE Sainte-Justine Children’s Hospital Research Center under the supervision of Dr. Patricia Conrod.
Postdocs
Name: Komal Bharti, PhD
Research: Brain stimulation and multimodal neuroimaging methods focusing on addiction and affective disorders.
Method: TMS, resting-state fMRI, fMRI, DTI
Email: bkomalcct@gmail.com
For more information, click here
Name: Daniel Robles
Research: Mobile EEG, alpha oscillations and attention, the relationship between attention and rewards in current substance users
Methods: Mobile-EEG, TMS, diffusion weighted imaging
Email: dr1147@newark.rutgers.edu
Tel.: 973-353-3509
PhD students
Name: Malte Güth, M.Sc.
Research: EEG informed closed-loop neuromodulation of goal-directed navigation
Methods: EEG-fMRI, MEG, EEG, TMS, data fusion
Email: malte.r.gueth@rutgers.edu
Tel.: 973-353-3509
Name: Galit Karpov, B.Sc.
Research: Effects of Childhood Maltreatment on Adult Threat Processing.
Methods: EEG, fMRI.
Email: galit.karpov@rutgers.edu
Tel.: 973-353-3509
For more information, click here
Name: Jaleesa Stringfellow-James, B.A.
Research: Measuring and modulating reward functioning in addiction with TMS
Methods: Augmented and Virtual Reality, EEG, fMRI, EEG-fMRI, machine learning
Email: jss388@newark.rutgers.edu
Tel.: 973-353-3509
Name: Yifan Gao, MA, BSc
Research: Measuring and manipulating brain connectivity in addiction with TMS
Methods: fMRI, EEG, TMS
Email: yg566@rutgers.edu
Tel.: 973-353-3509
For more information, click here
Name: Nicole Lalta
Research: Measuring and manipulating brain connectivity in addiction with TMS
Methods: fMRI, EEG, TMS
Email: nicole.lalta@rutgers.edu
Tel.: 973-353-3509
Research Assistants
Name: Emily Zhang
Research: Utilizing EEG to examine reward processing in clinical populations such as mood disorders and addiction, and learning how neural biomarkers can be used to inform clinical interventions.
Methods: EEG, fMRI, TMS
Email: emilydzhang896@gmail.com
Tel.: 973-353-3509
Name: Merna Zaki
Affiliation: Post-Baccalaureate Research Experience (PREP) Pilot Program
Research Interests: Reward processing and addiction
Name: Keya Thaker
Affiliation: Rutgers Undergraduate Neuroscience Major
Research Interests:
Name: Mr. Roboto
Affiliation: research assistant in Dr. Baker's lab.
Research Interests: Holding things precisely. I like to use MRI images to set brain stimulation targets, and then continuously track and adapt to the movements of the cranium in real-time. My goal is to guarantee a precise mm coil to target position for Dr. Baker's experiments. This is far better than my last job in the culinary world. click here
Collaborators
Andrew Reid, PhD http://andrew.modelgui.org/
Omer Liran, MD: Co-Director, Virtual Medicine Program, Cedars-Sinai
Elisa Kallioniemi, PhD, NJIT www.elisakallioniemi.com/
CMBN collaborators
Mike Cole, PhD colelab.org
Drew Headley, PhD mimoneuro.org
Vince McGinty, PhD mcgintylab
Bakerlab Alumni
Mei-heng Lin, PhD - Post-doc
Kathryn Biernacki, PhD - Post-doc now a research fellow at the National Institute of Drug Abuse)
Sally Cole, M.A. - RA now at KATLAB, Florida State)
Marissa Cortright - NIDA summer intern
Daniel Rynerson, M.A. - Undergrad RA
Gray Garrard - Undergrad RA
Pavlina Coleska - Undergrad RA
Peter Shafeek - Undergrad RA
Juan Cadavid - Undergrad RA
Neeta Bauer - Undergrad RA
Seema Parikh, B.A. - Undergrad RA
Fernanda Juarez, B.A. - Undergrad RA
Martin Hochheimer, B.Sc. Visiting Scholar from Germany
Team Meetings & Lab Life
June 2022 (Brown University, Providence). Kathryn presenting work on the effects of TMS on reinforcement learning at the 5th Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making in Providence (RLDM 2022).
