CV

Education

Young Investigator Award for Excellence in Research on Alzheimer’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Association (2024)
NRSA F31 Award (Individual Predoctoral Fellowship), National Institute on Aging, NIH (2024)
Best Poster Award, Alzheimer's Imaging Consortium: Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (2023)
Honorable Mention, Predoctoral Fellowship, Ford Foundation (2021)
Honorable Mention, Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP), NSF (2020, 2021)
Departmental Citation Award, UC Berkeley Cognitive Science: valedictorian (top graduating student) (2020)
Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), UC Berkeley L&S Sciences (2019)
Diversity Research Award, Scientific Research Network on Decision Neuroscience and Aging (2019)
Amgen Scholars Fellowship, Columbia University (2018)
The Leadership Award, Cal Alumni Association (2016, 2019): merit-based scholarship for innovative, initiative-driven leadership

Ph.D. Thesis Research: Jagust Lab & Cognitive Neuroanatomy (Weiner) Lab, UC Berkeley HWNI (May 2021 - present)

Analyzing sulcal morphology in aging and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and relationships between individual variability in cortical folding (MRI), vulnerability to AD pathology (PET), and cognition

Ph.D. Rotation Projects: UC Berkeley HWNI (Aug 2020 - May 2021)

Jagust Lab (PI: William Jagust): Used machine learning models to generate age predictions based on human structural MRI scans, and examined relationship between predicted age and dopamine PET measures, amyloid and tau levels.
Cognitive Neuroanatomy Lab (PI: Kevin Weiner): Learned advanced MRI processing and neuroanatomy methods and applied them to an AD dataset. Discovered several new medial parietal cortex sulci, and found that individual differences in medial parietal cortex sulcal morphology relate to cognitive decline in AD.
Neuroecon Lab (PI: Ming Hsu) + UCSF Decision Lab (PI: Winstion Chiong): Analyzed and modeled effects of aging, dementia, and memory abilities on decision-making; discovered that the amount of semantic memory impairment correlates with decision-making deficit in dementia.

Pre-Ph.D. Research Positions: UC Berkeley HWNI (Aug 2020 - May 2021)

Publications

Maboudian SA, Willbrand EH, Kelly JP, Jagust WJ, Weiner KS. Defining overlooked structures reveals new associations between cortex and cognition in aging and Alzheimer’s disease. J Neurosci. 2024; 44(16):e1714232024
Willbrand EH*, Maboudian SA*, Kelly JP, Parker BJ, Foster B, Weiner KS. Sulcal morphology of posteromedial cortex substantially differs between humans and chimpanzees. Commun biol. 2023; 6(1), 586
Maboudian S, Hsu M, Zhang Z. Visualizing and Quantifying Longitudinal Changes in Verbal Fluency Using Recurrence Plots. Front. Aging Neurosci. 2022;14:810799.
Willbrand EH, Maboudian SA, Kellerman GK, Elliott MV, Johnson SL, Weiner KS. Variable presence of an evolutionarily new brain structure is related to a transdiagnostic predictor of psychopathology. (Submitted)
Kelly JP, Willbrand EH, Chen X, Maboudian SA, Parker BJ, Jiahui G, Garrido L, Zhen S, Duchaine B, Weiner KS. Overlooked sulci in human posteromedial cortex are related to face processing. (Submitted)
Hastings III WL, Willbrand EH, Elliott MV, Kelly JP, Maboudian SA, Johnson SL, Weiner KS. Emotion-related impulsivity is related to orbitofrontal cortical sulcation. (Under review)

Presentations

Defining overlooked structures reveals new associations between cortex and cognition in aging and Alzheimer's Disease. Talk presented at: 2024 ADRC Researchers' Symposium, UC Davis
Maboudian S, Willbrand E, Jagust W, Weiner K. Atrophy of posteromedial sulci in aging and Alzheimer’s disease differs by sulcal type and location. Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2023. Poster.
Maboudian S*, Willbrand E*, Kelly J, Parker B, Foster B, Weiner K. Sulcal morphology of posteromedial cortex substantially differs between humans and chimpanzees. Organization for Human Brain Mapping 2023. Poster.
Maboudian S, Willbrand E, Jagust W, Weiner K. Tertiary sulci in medial parietal cortex are particularly vulnerable to atrophy in aging and Alzheimer's disease. Society for Neuroscience 2022. Poster #445.03
Maboudian S, Zhang Z, Hsu M. Semantic Fluency Visualization to Improve Characterization of Memory Deficits in Dementia. (2019). Aging Research and Technology Summit 2019. Poster.

*Equal contribution

Co-Instructor, Psych 298: Quantitative Analysis and Coding Knowledge (2023)
Graduate Student Instructor, Molecular & Cell Biology C61: Foundational Neuroscience (2023)
Graduate Student Instructor, Public Health 129: The Aging Human Brain (2021)
Lab Teaching Assistant, Data 8: Foundations of Data Science (2017)

HWNI PhD Program Steering Committee (2023-): One of 2 student representatives of the Committee, which oversees program operation and updates
HWNI Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee (2020-2021): Organized DE&I trainings for the first-year curriculum and broader neuroscience community; applied for grants to fund research programs for students from minority-serving institutions; organized application workshop for prospective applicants
HWNI Bootcamp Committee (2021-2022): (2021) Planned first-year Neuroscience Bootcamp events and activities (labs, lectures, socials, etc.); (2022) developed hands-on cognitive neuroscience lab lesson (introduction to brain imaging analysis methods and human neuroanatomy)
HWNI Recruitment Committee (2020-): Planned recruitment and interview events for PhD admissions

Steering Committee Member & Team Lead, Community Resources for Science (CRS) (2020-)

Bay Area Scientists Inspiring Students (BASIS) is a program by Community Resources for Science (CRS), a nonprofit organization that brings science education resources to Bay Area TK-8 schools
Campus Steering Committee Member: lead campus outreach recruitment and coordination
Team Lead and Instructor: responsible for training team of teachers, scheduling lessons, & teaching
Lesson Developer: created neuroscience lesson based on state teaching standards; lesson has been taught to >800 local students by my team, in both English and Spanish

Workshop Developer and Leader, UC Berkeley Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) Conference (2023-)

Developed and taught neuroanatomy workshop for EYH, a conference to introduce middle-school girls to STEM fields

Guest Lecturer, UC Berkeley Academic Talent Development Program (2023)

Developed and taught lecture on Clinical Applications of Cognitive Neuroscience for high school Cognitive Neuroscience course

Mentor, Project SHORT (2021-2023)

Project SHORT (Students for Higher-Ed Opportunities and Representation in Training) offers pro bono mentorship for students from underrepresented backgrounds interested in graduate or medical school
Mentored students interested in applying to graduate school and assisted with application preparation

Design Team, Berkeley Science Review (2024)

Graphic design and scientific illustration for Berkeley Science Review science magazine

Co-Creator, Writer and Graphic Designer, Picking Brains (2020-2021)

Created Picking Brains interview series highlighting the stories of professors in neuroscience to normalize different backgrounds and journeys