Orish Chinna has an MBBS. She is a Senior Lecturer, holds PhD in Anatomy, and lectures in the Department of Anatomy, University of Port Harcourt Nigeria. She is the Founder of Women in Neuroscience Nigeria and Youth Neuroscience Association of Nigeria. She is the Coordinator of the Neuroscience group at the University of Port Harcourt and also the Vice President Neuroscience Society of Nigeria. Her current project is on mechanistic considerations of natural antidotes on environmental toxicants induced neurodegenerative changes in animal models. This is a part of the video series of Project Encephalon Brain Awareness Week. The talks in this series aim at explaining fundamental Neuroscience concepts in a way that they are understandable for students and the general public alike.

Bittu Kaveri Rajaraman is Associate Professor of Biology and Psychology and is the current Head of the Psychology Department. He received a PhD from Harvard University in neuroscience and was then a DST-Kothari postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, and then an INSPIRE Faculty Fellow at the Central University of Hyderabad. He works on the evolution of neural and behavioural systems of communication, the neuroethology of temporal pattern recognition in insects, and quantitative and economic cognition more broadly in zebrafish, dogs, and humans. This is a part of the video series of Project Encephalon Brain Awareness Week. The talks in this series aim at explaining fundamental Neuroscience concepts in a way that they are understandable for students and the general public alike.

Camila Demaestri received her BS in Psychology at Northeastern University and is currently a PhD Candidate in Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University. Her research focuses on studying how the brain changes in response to adversity early in life, leading to anxiety and fear-related pathology in adulthood. She loves video-calling her three sisters and mom to plan vacations near any body of water and gifting her plant clippings to anyone who is willing to care for them. This is a part of the video series of Project Encephalon Brain Awareness Week. The talks in this series aim at explaining fundamental Neuroscience concepts in a way that they are understandable for students and the general public alike.

Komal is a strong advocate for neuroscience and an optical neurotechnology lead at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California where she has served USA’s federal research wing of Science and Technology. She received her Bachelor’s degree (2010) in Electronics Engineering from the University of Mumbai, and her Master’s (2012) and Doctorate (2017) in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research interests include brain-machine interfaces, nanotechnology, and medical devices. She is also a part of various neuroscience outreach initiatives which focus on creating neuroscience and mental health awareness at grassroots levels, especially for the youngest and underserved communities. This is a part of the video series of Project Encephalon Brain Awareness Week. The talks in this series aim at explaining fundamental Neuroscience concepts in a way that they are understandable for students and the general public alike.

Eric H. Chudler (Ph.D.) is a research associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington (Seattle, WA) and the executive director of the Center for Neurotechnology. He is a neuroscientist who also works with teachers to create materials to help people learn about the brain. This is a part of the video series of Project Encephalon Brain Awareness Week. The talks in this series aim at explaining fundamental Neuroscience concepts in a way that they are understandable for students and the general public alike.

Shashank (they/she) completed their BE in Biotechnology from NSIT, University of Delhi. Truly fascinated by neurodegenerative disorders and the underlying cellular mechanisms, they finished their Bachelors' thesis at IGIB, Delhi under Dr. Beena Pillai. Currently, they're a PhD student at the Centre for Neuroscience at the Indian Institute of Science and working with Dr. Anupama Sathyamurthy on unraveling the neural circuits that enable complex motor behaviors. They are also interested in studying how the brain perceives touch and pain. They also love to spend their time reading fiction and listening to old songs. They are an openly trans individual active in queer circles. This is a part of the video series of Project Encephalon Brain Awareness Week. The talks in this series aim at explaining fundamental Neuroscience concepts in a way that they are understandable for students and the general public alike.

Claude Desplan is a Silver Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at NYU. He was born in Algeria and was trained at Ecole Normale Supérieure St. Cloud, France. He received his DSc at INSERM in Paris in 1983 and joined Pat O’Farrell at UCSF as a postdoc. There, he demonstrated that the homeodomain, a conserved signature of many developmental genes, is a DNA binding motif. In 1987, he joined Rockefeller University as an HHMI Assistant/Associate Investigator to pursue structural studies of the homeodomain and the evolution of axis formation. In 1999, Dr. Desplan joined NYU where he investigates the generation of neural diversity using the Drosophila visual system. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and an elected member of the EMBO. This is a part of the video series of Project Encephalon Brain Awareness Week. The talks in this series aim at explaining fundamental Neuroscience concepts in a way that they are understandable for students and the general public alike.

Holly Hunsberger is a postdoctoral research scientist with a dual appointment at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI/RFMH). She received her PhD from West Virginia University in the area of behavioral neuroscience. There, she studied glutamate’s role in Alzheimer’s disease pathology using novel microelectrode array technology. She is now in Dr. Christine Denny’s laboratory, where she received a grant to study the sex-specific impact of anxiety on Alzheimer’s disease progression. Additionally, she has a fellowship with the Columbia Technology Ventures office where she works on early-stage technology assessments, writing marketing abstracts, and preparing marketing campaigns. This is a part of the video series of Project Encephalon Brain Awareness Week. The talks in this series aim at explaining fundamental Neuroscience concepts in a way that they are understandable for students and the general public alike.