Members and Affiliates

Members

Gridhar Kalamangalam, MD

 

Giridhar Kalamangalam

Giri Kalamangalam received the MBBS medical degree from the Jawaharlal Institute in Puducheri, India and the DPhil in applied mathematics from Oxford University. He trained in general neurology at the Institute of Neurological Sciences in Glasgow, UK, and in epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology at Cleveland Clinic. He serves as the division chief of epilepsy in the Department of Neurology at UF and directs the Wilder Center. His research interests are in neuroimaging and brain dynamics, with reference to the magnetic resonance (MR) and electrophysiological (EEG) signatures of epilepsy and physiological cerebral state changes.

gkalamangalam@ufl.edu

https://neurology.ufl.edu/divisions-2/epilepsy/

Photo Mircea Chelaru

Mircea Chelaru

Mircea Chelaru trained in electronics engineering, obtaining a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from Iasi Technical University, Romania. He then switched careers to neuroscience, with appointments at Duke University and the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He is presently a research scientist in neurobiology at the University of Texas and holds an adjunct Assistant professor appointment at UF, with commitment to the Brain Dynamics Program of the Wilder Center.  He works broadly in neural signal processing for feature identification, classification and network dynamics.

Ioan.Chelaru@neurology.ufl.ed

Marc Ettinger

Mark Ettinger

Mark Ettinger graduated from MIT with degrees in physics and mathematics and completed a PhD in pure mathematics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His work in recent years has focused on algorithms for data analysis and machine learning in a variety of domains, including biomedical applications. Mark’s other interests include Husserlian phenomenology, Buddhist philosophy, meditation and other contemplative practices, and surfing.

jmark.ettinger@ufl.edu

Kajal Patel

Kajal Patel

Kajal is a recent graduate from Manchester Medical School, University of Manchester, UK. She grew up in Manchester before moving to Houston with her family. Kajal wants to pursue an academic career in neurology. She did a master’s in research during medical school where she worked on novel neuromodulatory techniques such as neurofeedback for patients with chronic pain. Her past work included analysis of brain states and functional connectivity in psychogenic nonepileptic seizures and chronic pain. Alongside research, Kajal is passionate about promoting education. She delivered neuroanatomy teaching series for her younger peers during medical school and led a society called MedReach, an online mentoring program aiming to help college applicants from less advantaged backgrounds get into medicine. Her hobbies include art and painting, playing badminton, and reading novels.

kajal.patel1@ufl.edu

Coordinator

photo Amanda James

 

Amanda James

Amanda James serves as the central administrative resource for the Wilder Center, in addition to carrying primary responsibility for the operational logistics of the Epilepsy Division in the Department of Neurology at UF.

wildercenter@neurology.ufl.edu

 

Research Assistant

Sreya Malladi Sreya Malladi

Sreya Malladi is a current undergraduate student studying Neuroscience at the University of Florida. After graduating she plans on attending medical school to become a physician, specializing in the field of Neurology.

 

sreya.malladi@ufl.edu

Affiliate Faculty

Photo Mehmet Sait Albayram

Mehmet Sait Albayram

 Sait Albayram obtained his MD and residency training in Instanbul University, Turkey, and underwent fellowship training in adult and pediatric neuroradiology at Johns Hopkins University and Calgary, Canada. He is currently an Associate Professor at UF, and has interests in advanced techniques in MRI neuroradiology in epilepsy in addition to cerebrospinal fluid dynamics.

albaym@radiology.ufl.edu

https://xray.ufl.edu/patient-care/faculty/

Dr. Babajani

Abbas Babajani-Feremi

Abbas Babajani-Feremi, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology, Division of Epilepsy at UF and the Scientific Director of the Magnetoencephalography (MEG) Laboratory. Abbas joined as a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Neurology at the Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI in 2007 after completing his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Tehran. In 2011, he joined as a member of the MEG team in the Human Connectome Project (HCP) at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The HCP was one of the largest funded projects by NIH in system neuroscience and aimed to map the human brain by outlining the neural pathways using cutting-edge neuroimaging data from a large number of subjects. His research interests are (1) applications of the brain connectomics and machine learning based on MEG, functional MRI (fMRI), and intracranial EEG in diagnostic and treatment of patients with epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurological conditions; and (2) study of the brain’s functions, specifically language, using the electrophysiological and neuroimaging modalities.

babajani.a@ufl.edu

https://neurology.ufl.edu/divisions-2/epilepsy/

Photo Dr. Borum

Peggy Borum

Peggy Borum received the PhD in biochemistry from the University of Tennessee. She is a Professor of Human Nutrition in the Department of Food Science at UF, and hold a dual appointment with the Department of Pediatrics at the UF’s College of Medicine.  Her research interest is in metabolic issues in epilepsy, particularly the role of nutrient metabolism in epileptogenesis and in the treatment of epilepsy. More generally she is interested in energy and carnitine metabolism in neurological disease.

prb@ufl.edu

https://borum.ifas.ufl.edu/

Frank Bova

 

Frank Bova

Frank Bova received a PhD in Nuclear Engineering Sciences with a specialization in Medical Physics from UF. He is currently a Professor of Neurosurgery and the Principal Investigator for the McKnight Brain Institute Radiosurgery/Biology Laboratory. Frank began the UF Radiosurgery program in collaboration with neurosurgeon Dr. William Friedman in the 1980s, and their work has resulted in several patents for mechanical and computer system associated with radiosurgery and image guided procedures. His research interests are in new technologies in the areas of image guidance, computer-assisted neurosurgery, mixed-reality simulation, and radiosurgery.

bova@ufl.edu

https://neurosurgery.ufl.edu/faculty-staff/research-faculty/frank-j-bova-phd/

Photo Maria Bruzzone

 

Maria Bruzzone-Giraldez

Maria Bruzzone-Giraldez received her medical degree from the Universidad de la República, Uruguay, residency training in neurology at Loyola University in Chicago, and fellowship training in Neurophysiology and Epilepsy at the University of Chicago. Her research interest is in the neurochemistry of refractory focal epilepsy, and the role of metabolomics in determining clinical phenotype and seizure occurrence.

mariabruzzonegir@ufl.edu

https://neurology.ufl.edu/divisions-2/epilepsy/

 

Photo Dr. Jean Cibula

Jean Cibula

Jean Cibula received the MD and neurology residency training from the Case Western School of Medicine and fellowship training in behavioral neurology and epilepsy at UF. She was on faculty at the University of Kentucky prior to her return to UF, where she is Associate Professor of Neurology and holds the BJ and Eve Wilder Professorship of Epilepsy. Outside of clinical trials, Jean’s research interest is in pedagogical models of student, resident and fellow training, and the impact of new technologies.

jean.cibula@ufl.edu

https://neurology.ufl.edu/divisions-2/epilepsy/

 Photo Reordan DeJesus

Reordan DeJesus

Reordan DeJesus obtained his MD in the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre Y Maestra, Santiago, Dominican Republic and his postgraduate training at Mayo Clinic, Virginia Commonwealth University, Duke University, and UF. He is currently Associate Professor and chief of neuroradiology at UF. His research interest is generally in advanced MRI techniques in neuroradiology.

dejero@radiology.ufl.edu

https://ufhealth.org/reordan-o-dejesus

MINGZHOU DING

Mingzhou Ding

Mingzhou Ding received a BS in astrophysics from Peking University and a PhD in physics from the University of Maryland. He is currently Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. His research focuses on applying engineering approaches to the neural basis of cognitive function and their alteration in neurological and psychiatric disease, using a variety of tools such as multimodal structural and functional neuroimaging, signal analytic methods, and network and neural oscillation analysis.

mding@bme.ufl.edu

Dr. Farrer

Matthew Farrer

Matthew Farrer earned a PhD in Molecular and Statistical Genetics from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School, UK. He completed a Fellowship in Medical Genetics at the Kennedy-Galton Centre, UK, and in Neurogenetics at Mayo Clinic. Matt’s work in recent years has focused on applying genetic analysis to complex neurologic disorders. As Lauren and Lee Fixel Chair of Parkinson’s disease research he currently directs the UF Clinical Genomics Program and the Parkinson’s Research Laboratory.

m.farrer@ufl.edu

https://neurology.ufl.edu/divisions/lnn/

Aysegul Gunduz

Ayse Gunduz received her PhD in Electrical Engineering from UF. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Wadsworth Center at Albany prior to her return to UF, where she is now Associate Professor and Pruitt Family Term Fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and directs the Brain Mapping Laboratory. Her group studies precursors to behavior and aftereffects of stimulation in neurosurgical human populations through electrophysiology and bio-imaging. The goal of her lab is to translate the knowledge gained into clinical diagnostic and therapeutic systems to improve the quality of life of those suffering from neurological disorders.

agunduz@ufl.edu

http://brainmappinglab.org

Image Christopher-W-Hess

Christopher Hess

Christopher Hess received his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and completed his general neurology training as well as fellowships in movement disorders and clinical motor physiology at Columbia University Medical Center. He serves as the fellowship director for the movement disorders program, where his clinical interests are in dystonia, Parkinson’s disease, and essential tremor. Chris also serves as the medical director and the director of neurotechnology for the Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases. His research interests are in the cortical and deep brain dynamics associated with movement pathophysiology, explored with invasive and high-density scalp electroencephalography (EEG).

Christopher.Hess@neurology.ufl.edu

https://movementdisorders.ufhealth.org/team/faculty-fellows/christopher-w-hess-m-d/

Photo Dr. Maciel

Carolina Maciel

Carolina Maciel received her medical degree from Universidade Federal Fluminense in Brazil, and completed a Neurology residency at Weill Cornell Medical College/Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center prior to Neurocritical Care and ICU EEG fellowship training at Yale.  She is currently Assistant Professor of Neurology at UF, with a commitment to both the divisions of neurocritical care and epilepsy. Her research focuses on improving prognostication techniques and understanding the impact of cortical electrical phenomena (seizures and cortical spreading depolarization) after acute brain injury.

carolina.maciel@ufl.edu

https://neurology.ufl.edu/divisions-2/neurocritical-care/neurocritical-care-faculty/carolina-maciel-md/

 

Photo Dr. Mareci

Thomas Mareci

Tom Mareci received the DPhil in in physical chemistry from Oxford University for work on nuclear magnetic resonance multiple-quantum spectroscopy.  Currently a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UF, he is the Associate Director of the Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy center at UF (AMRIS), and served as the Director of UF’s Center for Structural Biology from 1993-2007.  His research broadly covers structural and biochemical processes in the nervous system using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including disease states such as cognitive disorders and epilepsy. His students come from diverse disciplines – biochemistry, biomedical and electrical engineering, chemistry, neuroscience, and physics.

thmareci@ufl.edu

https://biochem.med.ufl.edu/research/primary-faculty/thomas-mareci/

Dr. Michael Okun, neurology, Fixel Institute

Michael Okun

Michael Okun received his undergraduate and MD degrees from UF, and was fellowship trained in movement disorders at Emory University. An author, neurologist and researcher, he is currently Aderlaide Lackner Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology and Co-director of the Movement Disorders Program at the Norman Fixel Center for Neurological Diseases at UF Health. His research interest on the physiology and pathology of the basal ganglia has been featured in the Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic and on CNN. He is more broadly interested in therapeutic neuromodulation and the cognitive, behavioral, and mood effects of brain stimulation.

msokun@ufl.edu

https://fixel.ufhealth.org

Steven N Roper, MD

Steven Roper

Steve Roper received his undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University and the MD from the University of Texas Medical Branch. He was trained in neurosurgery and epilepsy surgery at UCLA. He is currently Professor of Neurosurgery and serves as the surgical director of the University of Florida Comprehensive Epilepsy Program. His research interest in epilepsy neurophysiology has been funded the Epilepsy Foundation of America, the National Institutes of Health, and the McKnight Foundation.

roper@ufl.edu

https://neurosurgery.ufl.edu/faculty-staff/our-faculty/steven-n-roper-md/

 Shreya Saxena

Shreya Saxena

Shreya Saxena completed her PhD in the Laboratory of Information and Decision Systems at MIT. She went on to serve a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University. Shreya’s work focuses on the interface of statistical inference, recurrent neural networks, control theory, and neuroscience. An Assistant Professor at UF, she directs the Saxena Lab in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.

shreya.saxena@ufl.edu

https://saxena.ece.ufl.edu/pi/

 

photo Dr. Subramony

Sankarasubramony Subramony

Sub Subramony was trained in neurology and electromyography and neuromuscular diseases at the Cleveland Clinic. He was on the faculty at the University of Mississippi Medical Center where he was named the Billy Guyton Distinguished Professor of Neurology and later at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston where he was appointed the Charlotte Warmoth Professor of Neurology. He is currently a Professor of Neurology at UF. His research interest is in neurogenetics, and he has been involved in phenotypic characterization of many neurogenetic disorders, developing assessment tools with new technologies and translational research in the field.

s.subramony@ufl.edu

https://neurology.ufl.edu/profile/subramony-sub/

 

Photo Dr. Vemri

Baba Vemuri

Baba Vemuri received the PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently the Wilson and Marie Collins Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering, where he directs the Vision, Graphics and Medical Imaging Lab. His research includes statistical analysis of manifold-valued data which has contributed to medical imaging datasets such as DW-MRI and diffusion tensor imaging.  He has more recently been interested in computer vision applications in clinical epileptology.

vemuri@ufl.edu

https://www.cise.ufl.edu/~vemuri

Affiliate Graduate Student

Photo Sarah Long

Sarah Long

Sarah followed her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering with work experience in neurodiagnostic technology. She is now PhD candidate in Biomedical Engineering in the Brain Mapping Lab, where she studies the electrophysiology of motor behavior and memory in neurosurgical patients with epilepsy and movement disorders.

sarah.long@ufl.edu

http://brainmappinglab.org/

Alumni

Manish Amin

Manish Amin

Manish obtained a double undergraduate major in physics and mathematics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He obtained his PhD in the Mareci lab at UF’s Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy (AMRIS) facility. Manish worked on diffusion MRI and correlations between structural imaging and pathology, including epilepsy. Following a short post-doctoral stint at UF, Manish now pursues a career in industry.

Alexander Cerquera

Alexander Cerquera

Alex Cerquera received a BS in biomedical engineering from the Universidad Antonio Nariño in Bogota, Colombia and a PhD in neurosensory science and systems from Carl von Ossietzky Universitaet in Oldenburg, Germany. He is interested in biomedical and neural signal processing, and worked as a post-doctoral fellow on the autonomic signatures of temporal lobe epilepsy on the electrocardiographic (EKG) signal. Alex now pursues a career in industry.

 Emily Hickey Emily Hickey

Emily Hickey received a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology with a minor in Family, Youth, and Community Sciences at the University of Florida. She currently serves as a research coordinator for the Wilder Center. She also works as an administrative assistant for the Epilepsy Division in the Department of Neurology at UF.

ehickey1297@ufl.edu

Photo Emma Hughes

Emma Hughes

Emma Hughes completed a BS in Health Science at UF. Currently on break, she plans to enter medical school to become a physician specializing in neurology.