aka47@cornell.edu
At some point in time, I have found myself at Vassar, Harvard, City College NY, Yale, Stanford, and the University of Toronto. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island, I am happy to be back in my home state of NY and hoping to live up to Cornell’s land grant mission.
I am interested in the role of the emotions in all human faculties, from shaping the very first stages of perception to rendering judgments on what is moral. Considering both psychological and neural levels of analysis, a guiding principle in my work is understanding the function of emotions as distinct tools intended to help rather than hurt us. In recognition of this work, I have received the APA Early Career Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience and the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Young Investigator Award.