Emma Duerden, PhD is a Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and Learning Disorders. She is the scientific lead of the Developing Brain research program. She is an Associate Professor in Applied Psychology in the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Ontario. She is also a Scientist in the Maternal, Fetal and Newborn Health Division at the Children's Health Research Institute. She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from McGill University. She trained at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) for her Master's degree in Neuroscience. She completed her PhD in Neuroscience at University of Montreal. Her research examines early life stress and the association with brain development and cognitive outcomes in infants with critical illness and children with neurodevelopmental disorders.

She has been honoured with several local, provincial and national awards for her research including the Early Researcher Award (Province of Ontario), CHRI Scientist of the Year (2023), the Future Leaders in Brain Research Award (Brain Canada), and the Early Career Investigator award in maternal, reproductive, child and youth health (CIHR).
Pubmed 
Google Scholar
LinkedIn 
​

Research scientists, Research Associates & POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS

​Emily Nichols, PhD is Research Scientist and Adjunct Research Professor in the Developing Brain Lab, studying the developing brain using neuroimaging, starting from the fetus until early childhood. She is working to develop preprocessing pipelines to address some of the key difficulties in fetal neuroimaging, and to develop prenatal biomarkers of Intrauterine Growth Restriction. Her graduate work in neuroscience involved the study of bilingual language processing, and she also completed a post doc in computational neuroscience, using techniques in the field of machine learning.
​
Eun Jung Choi, PhD completed her Doctorate at Seoul National University in South Korea and is currently working with Dr. Emma Duerden and Dr. Ryan Stevenson as a Research Associate. She has investigated brain-behaviour associations in children and youths encompassing clinical and non-clinical populations. Her recent work includes examining children’s lifestyle changes and their associated behavioural and mental health difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as identifying resting-state functional connectivity features underpinning sensory phenotypes in children with neurodevelopmental disorders (ASD, ADHD and OCD).
Rubina Malik, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow in the Developing Brain Lab. She completed her PhD at Western University in 2023, where she investigated the neurocognitive and genetic underpinnings of apathy in neurodegenerative dementias. She is interested understanding how early-life factors can influence later-life neurodegeneration. Using fNIRS, she is working to discover biomarkers of pediatric traumatic brain injuries, and to determine the long-term cognitive impacts of early-life injury. ​
Mozhgan Salimiparsa, PhD is a postdoctoral researcher, co-supervised by Dr. Emma Duerden and Dr. Jody Culham. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from Western University. Her research specializes in the analysis of eye-tracking data with a focus on investigating the relationship between gaze behavior and neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Lingkai Tang, PhD is a postdoctoral fellow in the Developing Brain Lab. He completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Northwestern Polytechincal University, China, in 2015. He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a Masters of Science.  He completed his PhD at Western University in 2024. His Masters thesis focused on brain-network analyses in children with autism spectrum disorder. Currently, he is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering and his research focusses on using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to study brain injury in infants and children impacted by critical illness.
Michaela Kent, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher co-supervised by Dr. Emma Duerden and Dr. Jody Culham. Primarily, Michaela studies the development of social cognition, specifically face processing and theory of mind, using naturalistic neuroimaging methods (fNIRS). She is also involved in work relating to screen time and media use in adolescents.







Kassandra Roger, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher in the Developing Brain Lab. She completed her PhD in Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Montreal, where she investigated the long-term effects of early-life malnutrition on brain function using electroencephalography (EEG) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). She currently examines brain development across childhood and adolescence in neurotypical and neurodivergent populations using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Her research focuses on understanding how early adversity shapes children’s brain development and how these changes relate to their cognitive and psychological outcomes.
​​

  GRADUATE STUDENTS and undergraduate thesis students

Elizabeth Kuenzel, MA, is a PhD student in School and Applied Child Psychology program at Western. She completed her Master of Arts in School and Applied Child Psychology at Western, and completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Concordia University of Edmonton. Elizabeth has worked with children with ASD doing ABA therapy, as well as with adults with disabilities as a residential counsellor. In her current research she is interested in how early adversity impacts cognitive outcomes and mental health in children with ASD.
​
Megan Mueller, MA, is a PhD student in School and Applied Child Psychology program at Western University. Megan completed her undergraduate degree at McMaster University, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, with a specialization in Mental Health. She also completed Master’s degrees in both Developmental Psychology and Education at the University of Toronto, OISE and in the School and Applied Child Psychology at Western University. Megan is interested in expanding her research to explore whether brain development and injury in premature infants is a predictor of later social-emotional development and mental health. 
​
Julia Montenegro, MA, is a PhD student in the School and Applied Child Psychology program at Western University. Julia worked as a psychotherapist in Brazil for many years before moving to Canada in 2018. Back in Brazil, she completed her undergraduate degree at UNIFESP (Universidade Federal de São Paulo - Brazil) and followed a 2-year Residency Program, which gave her the title of specialist in Mental Health. In Canada, Julia completed her MA in School and Applied Child Psychology at Western University. She is now continuing her research with babies, looking at early behavioural measures and brain development to identify young infants with an increased likelihood of developing Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  This research aims to facilitate the identification of those infants and access to early interventions.
Alissa Papadopoulos, MA, is a PhD Student in the School and Applied Child Psychology program at Western University. She completed her Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology at Western University and completed her undergraduate degree in biology & psychology at McMaster University. Alissa’s current research involves studying the impact of maternal mental health on brain and motor development in infants.
Abagail Hennessy, M.A., is a PhD. student in the School and Applied Child Psychology program in the Faculty of Education at Western. Abagail has an interest in supporting children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) through her research. Abagail also works as a psychometrist for the Thames Valley District School Board, conducting psycho-educational assessments. Under Dr. Duerden’s supervision, Abagail is completing her PhD thesis on validating an online cognitive screener in children with and without NDDs. The goal of this research is to increase accessibility to cognitive evaluations for children and families, in order to help identify at-risk children. 
Amber-Lee Di Paolo, MA is a PhD student in the School and Applied Child Psychology program at Western University. She completed her undergraduate degree at McGill University in Psychology. Her previous work focused on the association between prenatal maternal stress during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia and postpartum anxiety, as moderated by three protective psychological factors. Now, she is currently conducting her Master’s thesis on the relationships between prenatal stress, infant brain volumes, and social-emotional development throughout the pandemic in Canada.
LinkedIn 
Sarah Al-Saoud, MA, is completing her PhD in Education in the Field of School and Applied Child Psychology and is conducting research on neuromelanin imaging in children with neurodevelopmental disorders
​Taryn Simon, MA, is a PhD student in the School and Applied Child Psychology program at Western. She previously completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour at McMaster University, and worked as a research coordinator leading a randomized control trial examining if treating maternal postpartum depression improves infant emotion regulation. Taryn is interested in the intergenerational transmission of psychiatric risk. Her current research examines perinatal psychological distress, infant white matter development, and infant emotional outcomes.
Mahmoud Salman, BSc, is an MESc student in Biomedical Engineering at Western University. He holds a BSc in Biomedical Engineering from Cairo University. His past research experience includes brain tumor segmentation and motion artifact correction using deep learning, as well as employing active learning to continuously enhance model performance in clinical settings. He is interested in developing tools to study learning and memory regions in the fetal brain. Currently, he is focused on improving automatic hippocampal segmentation for clinical infant brain scans and developing a 3D Atlas for segmenting the amygdala sub-nuclei. Explore his projects at myaser.vercel.app.
Kiro Samaan, BHSc, is an MSc student in Neuroscience at Western University. Kiro completed his Bachelor's degree in Health Sciences at Queen's University in 2024, where he gained hands-on experience in neuroimaging and neurotechnology. His current research focuses on using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) combined with machine learning techniques to classify neonatal brain injuries, specifically Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) and Intraventricular Hemorrhage (IVH). Kiro is passionate about enhancing diagnostic accuracy and improving outcomes for infants affected by critical neurological conditions.
Kyle Sun, BMSc, is an MSc student in Neuroscience at Western University, co-supervised by Rishi Ganesan and Emma Duerden. He previously completed his bachelor's degree in Medical Sciences at Western in 2024. His current research focuses on the development and validation of auditory tasks that can be used with functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to detect covert consciousness in critically ill children who are unresponsive following an acquired brain injury.
Sydney Smith, BASc, is a first year Master's Student in the School and Applied Child Psychology program at Western University. She holds a Bachelor's of Arts and Science in Honours Cognitive Science from McGill University. During her undergraduate degree, Sydney completed two research theses: one focusing on visual perception of blurriness, and the second on continuity of self-schemas in cancer survivorship. She is excited to be joining the Developing Brain Lab this year.

additional Research TEam 

Lilian M N Kebaya, MD, MMed, MSc is a paediatrician and neonatologist. She completed both her fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and her Masters in Neuroscience at Western University. Lilian is passionate about neonatal care and neurodevelopmental outcomes. Lilian's research interests revolve around neonatal brain injury and outcomes. In the long term, she is keen on fostering training and research collaborations.  

RESEARCH ASSISTANTS
Ella Christiaans, BA graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from McGill University in 2020 and is currently completing an MEd in Educational Psychology at McGill University. She is currently helping to create, promote, and coordinate studies in the Developing Brain Lab.
Brian Krivoruk, BSc, is an MSc Student in the Neuroscience program at Western University and a research assistant in the Developing Brain Lab. He completed his Honours Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Western University in 2022, where he studied human memory and cognition. He is currently interested in using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to study the brain activity of paediatric ICU patients who are at risk of Delirium.    
LinkedIn ​
Derya Adil, MSc, is a postgraduate researcher, co-supervised by Dr. Sandrine de Ribaupierre, Dr. Roy Eagleson, and Dr. Emma Duerden. She holds an MSc in Neuroscience and is interested in neurodevelopment and neuroplasticity in early childhood brain conditions. Her current research includes developing a clinically meaningful "rewiring index" to examine white matter reorganization in children with infantile hydrocephalus using diffusion MRI and Artificial Intelligence. She is also involved in neurocognitive assessments of typically developing children aged 2–4 years, with a focus on early developmental trajectories.
Juanita Atton, HBSc is an MD Candidate at the Schulich School of Medicine. She completed her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at the University of Toronto, with a thesis focused on neurological outcomes in pediatric brain tumour survivors. Prior to entering medical school, she worked at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) on a virtual positive parenting program for families of children with neurodevelopmental conditions. As part of the lab, she is involved in the EMBRACE project aiming to examine early brain outcomes in fetuses impacted by gestational diabetes in utero. After med school, she hopes to pursue her residency in pediatrics with a particular focus on neonatology.
Cassia Donga is a fourth year undergraduate student in an Honours Specialization in Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences (BMSc) at Western University. She has worked most extensively on projects using fNIRS to investigate pediatric and neonatal health. She is interested in pursuing graduate studies and medicine. 

Research Nurses 

​Paige MeyerinK, RN

Julia Parks, RN

Christine Grafe, RN

ALUMNI

RACHEL THORBURN, RESEARCH ASSISTANT 
​​ANN CLENDENNING, RESEARCH ASSISTANT
​NOAH BRIERLY, RESEARCH ASSISTANT​
​​ WENYU HUANG, M.ED​
EMMA TRUFFYN, RESEARCH ASSISTANT
JIANAN WANG, MESc STUDENT
JIARUI YANG, BSc, UNDERGRADUATE THESIS STUDENT
SARA PAC, MSc STUDENT
MATTHEW WANG, BSc STUDENT
ALISSA PAPADOPOULOS, MA STUDENT
AMIRA HMIDAN, MA STUDENT
HOMA VAHIDI, MSc STUDENT
CAITLIN LEACHMAN, MA STUDENT
SUSANA CORREA, MSc STUDENT
KYLIE MERCADO, BA STUDENT
LAUREN MACINTYRE, BSc STUDENT



​
​