TOP: Frankie Ton-Loy, Kophi Westerman, Maggie Mckelvey, Jennifer Frascino, Jacquelyn Tsui
BOTTOM: Catherine Tallman, Christine Smith, Jasmin Rosato, Michelle Gomez
Not pictured: Ricardo Amador, Kathy Nguyen
Director
Christine N. Smith, Ph.D.
Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego
Research Service, Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System
Christine N. Smith, Ph.D. is a cognitive neuroscientist focusing on the biological bases of learning and
memory. She applies structural and functional neuroimaging techniques and eye tracking to the study of
human memory. Her work encompasses healthy people and people with memory disorders resulting
from brain injury or disease. Efforts include creating novel cognitive tests to identify subtle cognitive
impairment and aim to identify the structural and functional neuroanatomy that supports remembering
the recent and remote past. She completed her graduate training in experimental psychology at the
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee with Fred Helmstetter, Ph.D. where she examined emotional
learning in humans using functional neuroimaging. She completed her post-doctoral training at the
University of California San Diego with Larry Squire, Ph.D. where she investigated the brain regions
associated with different components of memory using novel memory tests to measure conscious and
unconscious memory, recollection and familiarity, and strong and weak memory. She has a dual
appointment in the Research Service at the San Diego VA (Research Health Scientist) and in the
Department of Psychiatry at UCSD (Associate Professor).
m
Psychometrist
Jennifer Frascino, M.A.
Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego
Research Service, Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System
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Research Assistants
Kophi Westerman, B.S.
Veterans Medical Research Foundation, Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System
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Post-Baccalaureate Scholars
Jasmine Baños, B.S.
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Zimu Li, B.S.
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Songyuan (Garrett) Tan, B.S.
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Undergraduate Research Assistants
Ricardo Amador
Department of Data Science, University of California San Diego
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Michelle Gomez
Department of Psychology, Department of Cognitive Science, and Department of Linguistics,
University of California San Diego
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Kathy Nguyen
Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego
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Jasmin Rosato
Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego
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Jacquelyn Tsui
Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego
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Past Laboratory Members
Maggie McKelvey– UCSD Psychology graduate student (April 2023 – June 2024)
Catherine Tallman – UCSD Psychology graduate student (July 2019 – October 2023)
Jialong (Alex) Guo – UCSD Cognitive Science undergraduate research assistant (June 2021 – May 2023)
Zhishang (Jack) Luo – UCSD Data Science undergraduate research assistant (September 2021 – May 2023)
Nikta Asadollahi – UCSD Psychology undergraduate research assistant (December 2021 – June 2022)
Xinran Zhang – UCSD Psychology undergraduate research assistant (June 2021 – September 2022)
Richard Xiang – UCSD Data Science undergraduate research assistant (January 2020 – June 2021)
Angeela Poudel – UCSD Biology undergraduate research assistant (August 2020 – June 2021)
Brigitte Guzman – UCSD Psychology undergraduate research assistant (August 2020 – April 2021)
Xin (Jamie) Wang, M.S. – Visiting scientist (August 2020 – January 2021)
Matthew Koester – UCSD Psychology undergraduate research assistant and UCSD research assistant (October 2018 – December 2020)
Irene Chu – UCSD Biology undergraduate research assistant (April 2019 – June 2020)
Julia Chang – New York University undergraduate research assistant (June 2019 – July 2019)
Eunice Lee – UCSD Psychology undergraduate research assistant (September 2018 – June 2019)
Aaron Creswell – UCSD undergraduate research assistant (Summer 2018)
Andrew Cawley-Bennett, B.S. – volunteer research assistant, VA research assistant (November 2015 – July 2018)
Past Years
June 2022
2021
October 2020
TOP: Zimu Li, Christine Smith, Jennifer Frascino, Jasmine Baños
MIDDLE: Isabel Asp, Du (Richard) Xiang, Xin (Jamie) Wang, Catherine Tallman
BOTTOM: Matthew Koester, Angeela Poudel, Brigitte Guzman
April 2020
TOP: Du (Richard) Xiang, Christine Smith, Matthew Koester, Zimu Li
MIDDLE: Catherine Tallman, Jennifer Frascino, Isabel Asp
BOTTOM: Irene Chu
November 2019
BACK: Matthew Koester, Jennifer Frascino, Catherine Tallman, Zimu Li
FRONT: Irene Chu, Christine Smith, Isabel Asp
June 2019
Julia Chang, Jennifer Frascino, Isabel Asp, Christine Smith, Matthew Koester, Shah Golshan
2018
Aaron Creswell, Jennifer Frascino, Christine Smith, Isabel Asp, Andrew Cawley-Bennett
2017
Jennifer Frascino, Andrew Cawley-Bennett, Isabel Asp, Christine Smith