Principal Investigator

Katie Tschida, Mary Armstrong Meduski ‘80 Assistant Professor of Psychology

Katie received her B.A. in Biology from Grinnell College, and then moved to North Carolina, where she completed her PhD, studying vocal learning in zebra finches. During her first post-doc, Katie switched gears to study the descending control of leg movements in the fruit fly. In her second post-doc, Katie returned to her first true love, studying the neural circuit basis for vocalization, this time in mice. Katie is thrilled to continue her research at Cornell and has finally invested in real, honest-to-goodness snow boots.

Postdoctoral Associates

David Zheng

David first became interested in social communication during undergrad, majoring in linguistics and literature. In his Master’s work with Dr. Alex Ophir, he investigated the role of social learning in prairie vole pair-bond formation. During his Ph.D., he researched the role of androgen modulation in the vocal output of Alston’s singing mice with Dr. Steve Phelps. He then switched to studying the neurobiology of the African clawed frog for his first postdoc with Dr. Ayako Yamaguchi, where he employed stereotaxic surgery and calcium imaging to understand the role of central pattern generators in vocalizations of this species. For his work in the Tschida Lab, David is excited to tease apart the roles of midbrain-to-hindbrain circuits for vocal communication while employing state-of-the-art techniques such as intersectional viral strategies and optogenetics.

Graduate Students

Patryk Ziobro

Patryk received his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University where he majored in psychology. During his undergraduate studies, he investigated the development of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons in the mouse brain and studied the role of these neurons in visual discrimination in rats. Patryk is excited to join the Tschida Lab to study the forebrain-to-midbrain circuits that control and regulate USV production in mice. When he is not devoting his life to neuroscience, Patryk likes to hike and yell at the tv while watching sports.

Cassidy Malone

Cassidy received her bachelor’s degree from The University of Texas at Austin in psychology and anthropology. There, she researched the behavioral and neural effects of social contests involving unfamiliar and familiar conspecifics in a highly social fish species. She is excited to investigate the role and significance of USVs during courtship in the Tschida Lab. When she’s not in the lab, Cassidy spends her time watching too many movies and curating the best patch of sunlight for her cat, Malcolm.

Renee Henderson

Renee Henderson earned her BS in Neural Science from New York University, where she studied the role of oxytocin in maternal care and how social interactions between female mice facilitate the transmission of effective caregiving behaviors. She is thrilled to be in the Tschida lab and excited to investigate how neural circuits mediate vocal communication as social context and functional demands evolve across development. Outside of the lab, Renee loves swimming, dancing, metal music, and reading way too much fiction.

Research Assistants

Lab Alumni

Former postdoctoral associates:

Dr. Xin Zhao (Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University)

Dr. Tatyana Matveeva (Senior cGMP Cell Production Manager, Massachusetts General Hospital)

Former graduate students:

Dr. Nicole Pranic (Postdoctoral Associate, Alonso Lab, University of Sussex)

Former undergraduate research assistants:

Class of ‘25: Dylan DeFelipe (University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine), Delia Ferry (Psychology PhD program, University of Auckland), Lilie Horton, Julia Khinno, Joclin Rabinovich (Research Assistant, Weill Cornell Medicine), Rhea Singh (Medical College of Wisconsin), Joshua Sokol (Neuroscience PhD program, University of Michigan)

Class of ‘24: Christian Bertomo (Research Assistant, Weill Cornell Medicine), Destiny Smith (Mid Atlantic Retina), Elena Woo (Saint Louis University School of Medicine)

Class of ‘23: Jacqueline Allen (Neuroscience PhD program, Northwestern University) Stephen Batter (University of Connecticut School of Medicine), Chloe Chae (NIH NIDA), Valerie Chen, Caroline Kornbrek (Neuroscience PhD program, UCSF)

Class of ‘22: Lola Adepoju (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia), William Chan (Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine, UNLV), Samantha Chu (Cayuga Medical Center/Cornell University), Tamara Grinberg, Zichen He (Psych and Neuro PhD program, Duke University), Samantha Rabinovich (UCLA Medical School), Archana Sadangi (Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine), Jennifer Zhao (Wellstar North Fulton Emergency Department)

Former high school research assistants/interns:

Zahra Choudry, Soraya Juste, Vaishnavi Kumbala, Alina Loginov (McGill University), Asmita Mittal (Cornell University), Vanessa Moyo (University of Arkansas), Kristina Nguyen (UCSD), Paul Tran, Jade Yu