Ian M. McDonough, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
My training is in cognitive psychology with an emphasis on memory and aging. I completed my B.S. at UCLA and then went to the University of Chicago for graduate school. There, my research focused on the neural correlates of memory and decision processes to determine the accuracy of retrieved information and how these neural correlates differ across the lifespan. This research was conducted using both behavioral interventions and functional neuroimaging, and was supported by multiple dissertation awards. As a postdoc, I expanded my research focus to Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers to predict future cognitive impairments. I also received training in multivariate methods (support vector machine and partial least squares), structural neuroimaging analyses (brain volume, cortical thickness, diffusion tensor imaging), and longitudinal analyses (HLM).
Graduate Students and Staff
Alin Alshaheri Durazo, Ph.D. Student
Email: aalshaheridu@binghamton.edu
Sepehr Gourabi, Ph.D. Student
Sepehr is a first-year graduate student in Cognitive and Brain Sciences. He earned his Bachelor’s in Physics from Amirkabir University, where he developed an interest in modeling biological organisms. He completed his Master’s at Shahid Beheshti University, focusing on brain network stability during working memory using fMRI data and structural balance theory. At Binghamton, Sepehr is involved in multiple research projects, including metamemory studies and investigating aging patterns by combining neurostimulation and functional neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI and tES.
If you’re interested in discussing a new research collaboration or any other subject with Sepehr, feel free to reach out via email or stop by his desk in the lab. And if he’s not there, no worries—just follow the trail of coffee cups or look for the guy strolling around campus, pretending to have deep thoughts but really just enjoying a walk and a hot drink. Catch him before the coffee runs out, and he’ll be happy to brainstorm!
Email: sgourabi@binghamton.edu
Stacey Zhu, Lab Technician
I am the laboratory technician for both the MAC2 Lab and Dr. Michael Dulas’s CAMP Lab, also in the Binghamton Psychology Department. I received a B.S. in Integrative Neuroscience at Binghamton University, where I was actually an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Dulas’s CAMP Lab. During my undergraduate years, I was able to develop my own independent project on temporal order memory. I took this position to learn how to run a lab, expand my knowledge in cognitive psychology and neuroscience, and conduct more research!
Email: szhu62@binghamton.edu
Former Researchers from the MAC2 Research Lab
- Destaw Bayabil Mekbib (Ph.D. from Zhejiang University) – Post-doctoral researcher
- Tasnuva Enam (Ph.D. from University of Alabama) – Now a professor at the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff
- Sarah Letang, (Ph.D. from University of Alabama) – Now a Neuropsychology Fellow at Spectrum Health
- Hillary Erwin, (Ph.D. from University of Alabama) – Now a teaching professor at University of Dayton, Ohio