About me
I am an Instructor at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School (I go by Lily). My research develops computational approaches to study brain–behavior relationships under real-world heterogeneity, with a focus on aging, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD).
At McLean, I work with Prof. Lisa D. Nickerson in the Applied Neuroimaging Statistics Research (ANSR) Lab at the McLean Imaging Center and Prof. David Harper in the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry. My work develops and applies machine learning and multimodal data fusion—including SuperBigFLICA—across large, multi-cohort datasets spanning structural/functional neuroimaging, fluid and imaging biomarkers, electronic health records (EHR), and text-derived phenotypes. I conceptualize this direction as computational neuroecology: modeling brain–behavior relationships in the complex, heterogeneous settings where clinical outcomes emerge. This work is supported in part by an Alzheimer’s Association Research Fellowship (2026–2029).
My research trajectory bridges cognitive neuroscience and clinical data science. I completed my Ph.D. in Cognitive Sciences at UC Irvine with Prof. Elizabeth R. Chrastil, investigating the neural and computational mechanisms of human spatial navigation. As a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital with Prof. Sudeshna Das, I applied deep learning and NLP methods to heterogeneous EHR and clinical data in dementia. Across these areas, my work is grounded in an interdisciplinary foundation spanning experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, geography, and computational modeling.
I also mentor Harvard-affiliated students on computational research projects within the ANSR Lab; see Mentoring & Teaching for current opportunities.
Upcoming Talks
- Sep 16, 2026 · Dementia Researcher Research Showcase — Mapping Brain Ageing with Multimodal Imaging (Online)
- Apr 30, 2027 · SIU School of Medicine — PHSL Seminar (Carbondale, IL / In person)