PhD Students
Phd Student
Radak1257@utexas.edu
Köll is a PhD student in the Curley Lab at The University of Texas at Austin. He is currently working on the neural mechanisms involved in paternal care. His research investigates the genomic expression within specific neural regions that regulate social behaviors (e.g., aggression and parental behaviors), specifically the neural shifts between paternal and non-paternal behaviors. He received a B.S. in Psychology and a certificate in Forensic Science at the University of Texas at Austin.
Phd Student
kathryn.mahach@utmail.utexas.edu
Kathryn is interested in how the early life social environment affects stress resilience later in life. More specifically, her research is focused on investigating the changes in glial cell characteristics driven by social experiences and their influence on affective behavior. Before coming to UT Austin, she received a B.S. in Biology from James Madison University.
Phd Student
sydney.seese@utexas.edu
Sydney is interested in studying how social behavior is influenced by developmental environment and how/what influences social status to change. She is currently researching dominance in male and female stable social mouse groups and doing work with how rearing environment influences social behaviors in mice. Sydney received a B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience at Michigan State University in 2020.
Phd Student
livy.taliaferro@austin.utexas.edu
Livy is a PhD student in the Curley lab at the University of Texas at Austin. They are interested in the mechanisms of transmitting and receiving social information within groups. Before joining the Curley lab, they received a B.A in Psychology from Baylor University.
Research Associates
Undergraduate Students
Postdocs
| Name | Current Position | Interests |
|---|---|
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Becca Franks Postdoc at the Animal Welfare Program at The University of British Columbia Ph.D. in Psychology, Columbia University (2012) B.A. in Anthropology, New York University (2002) |
Research Scientist of Environmental Studies, New York University Becca’s research interests include animal welfare; curiosity and cognitive enrichment; motivation; animal personality; statistical modeling; and fish behavior. |
Graduate Students
| Name | Current Position | Interests |
|---|---|
|
Maddie Dwortz Postdoctoral fellow at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin PhD in Neuroscience at The University of Texas at Austin (2025) B.S. in Biology at the University of Michigan (2017) |
Maddie is currently a research engineering scientist at the Genomic Sequencing and Analysis Facility at the University of Texas at Austin. Maddie specializes in single-cell and spatial transcriptomics workflows. |
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Won Lee Postdoc in Champagne Lab, the University of Texas at Austin (2021) Ph.D. in Psychology, Columbia University (2020) Masters in Psychology, Columbia University (2017) B.S. in Biology Education, Minor in Psychology, Seoul National University (2013) |
Won completed her PhD at Columbia University. She is now an associate In Vivo scientist at The Jackson Laboratory |
|
Tyler Marie Milewski Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience, UT Austin (2024) M.S in Neuroscience, University of Scranton B.S. in Biochemistry, University of Scranton |
Post Doctoral Fellow in the Gore Lab in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at UT Austin. |
|
Nina So PhD, Sarah Woolley Lab, Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University Masters, Curley Lab, Columbia University B.A. in Biology and Music, University of Virginia |
Nina completed her Masters’ degree at Columbia University in the lab. She is now director of R&D operations at Pfizer. |
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Cait Williamson Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience, Columbia University (2018) B.A. in Neuroscience and Behavior, Columbia University |
Cait completed a PhD at Columbia University. She is now an Account Director at 21GRAMS |
Research Associates
Undergraduate Students
| Name | Current Position | Interests |
|---|---|
|
Jaxon Paige Bowman B.S., University of Texas at Austin (2019) |
Medical Assistant at Dermatology & Skin Surgery Institute of North Texas, P.A. |
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Hanan Brower |
Hanan is an Freshman undergraduate research assistant in the Curley Lab at The University of Texas at Austin. She is pursuing a Bachelors of Science degree in Biology with a specification in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Hanan’s work revolves around social dominance structures and how they affect physiological outputs. |
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Jolie Burek B.S. in Biology, University of Texas at Austin (2020) |
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Mia Fusillo B.S. in Psychology and BBA in Finance, University of Texas at Austin (2024) |
Information Security Specialist at Prudential Financial |
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Olivia Laster |
Olivia Laster is an undergraduate research assistant in the Curley Lab at The University of Texas at Austin. She is pursuing a degree in Biology (B.S.). Olivia’s work revolves around Identifying the gene expression differences between the two sexes of mice. |
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Tina Thi Nguyen |
Tina Thi is an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Neuroscience (B.S.). She is working as an undergraduate research assistant in the Curley lab and her current project revolves around the behavioral analysis of mice social discrimination ability—more specifically, what information is being extracted in the discrimination between social odors of different groups of mice. |
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Kenzo Revilla |
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Arjun Seth B.S. in Biochemistry, University of Texas at Austin |
Medical student at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School |
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Sujit Vankineni B.S., University of Texas at Austin (2025) |
Medical Assistant at Shoal Creek Clinic |
