Jena Ezzedine joined the Ash Lab as a postbacc researcher in Spring 2026. She completed her BA in Cognitive Science and Ethnic Studies at UC-Berkeley and her MFA in Film Production from the American Film Institute Conservatory. Jena has an enduring interest in neuroscience and psychiatry. She is currently investigating how visual cortical circuits dynamically adjust their representations in affectively charged situations. She plans to pursue an MD or MD-PhD and train as a psychiatrist in the future. 

Frieda Nemon is a PhD student in the UCSF Neuroscience graduate program. She joined the AshLab in 2026 to pursue her PhD thesis. Frieda completed her BS in neuroscience at Cornell, and she has a background studying the neural circuit basis of song learning in songbirds. She is interested in studying the neural circuit basis of human cognitions, emotions, and behaviors, and using novel imaging and stimulation technologies to develop novel therapeutics for neuropsychiatric conditions. 

Dr. Minder completed her PhD in neuroscience at NYU in the labs of Rob Froemke and Moses Chao, identifying a neural circuit and hormonal pathway for diapause in rodents, in a first-author paper published in Science Advances. She completed a brief postdoc in Andrea Gomez's lab at UC-Berkeley, then joined the AshLab at UCSF in November 2025. Dr. Minder's primary project is to develop novel methods to noninvasively restore synaptic plasticity in disorders of excessive synaptic stability using transcranial focused ultrasound targeted biologics.

Dr. Scott  has a PhD in neuroscience from York University, where he recieved training in EEG and psychophysics with thesis mentors Heidi Basler and Alex Wade. He pursued a postdoc with Anthony Norcia at Stanford exploring high-density EEG steady-state visual evoked potentials as a diagnostic tool in glaucoma. Martin then joined Dr. Ash's research group to develop transcranial focused ultrasound neuromodulation approaches in the human subcortical visual pathway, initially at Stanford and now at UCSF.

Patti has a BS in psychology from UC-Irvine and has been a key member of Dr. Ash's research group at Stanford and UCSF since 2023. Patti's primary research project is to study how visual spatial attention modulates visual cortical plasticity measured by high-density EEG in human participants. She also performs in-human transcranial focused ultrasound studies. Patti plans to pursue PhD training in neuroscience or bio-engineering, matricualting Fall 2026.