Director
Giridhar Kalamangalam
Giri 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 in Glasgow, UK, and in epilepsy at Cleveland Clinic. He serves as Division Chief and Wilder Family Professor in the Department of Neurology. His main research interests are in brain dynamics and neuroimaging with reference to the electrophysiological (EEG) and magnetic resonance (MR) signatures of epilepsy and physiological cerebral state changes. He is also interested in higher brain function and neuro-phenomenology more generally.
Members
Maria Bruzzone-Giraldez
Maria 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. Currently an Associate Professor of Neurology at UF, her research interests broadly span clinical epilepsy and EEG, including long-term monitoring of acute brain syndromes and symptomatic seizures, the neurochemistry of refractory focal epilepsy, and the role of gender and metabolomics in determining clinical phenotype and seizure occurrence.
Christine Smith
Christine majored in biomedical engineering at Duke University as an undergraduate, obtaining her medical degree at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina. She completed her neurology residency and two years of fellowship training at UF. Currently serving as Assistant Professor of Neurology at UF, her research interests are in critical care EEG monitoring.
Joel Page
Joel was a double major in Chemistry and Spanish as an undergraduate and went on to receive his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia. He completed his neurology residency at the University of South Alabama and followed up with fellowships in clinical neurophysiology at Duke University, and behavioral neurology at UF. Currently serving as Assistant Professor of Neurology at UF, his research interests are in the cognition-epilepsy overlap, including neurophysiology and clinical presentations.
Research Scholars
Vishwatha Hari Baskar
Vishwatha comes from Puducheri, a vibrant coastal city in India known for its beaches and French colonial charm. Her interest in neurology began during her final year of medical school and was further focused on epilepsy after attending an EEG course. Currently participating in a number of research themes in the Division, she aims to later enter a neurology residency.
Subeikshanan Venkatesan
Subei completed his medical degree at the Jawaharlal Institute in Puducheri, India, following it up with extended practical experience in both neurology and neurosurgery. With a flair for technology and quantitative analysis, he is passionate about computational neuroscience. Following residency and fellowship training he aspires to be a physician scientist.
Affiliate Faculty
Abbas Babajani-Feremi
Trained as a biomedical engineer, Abbas is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology, Division of Epilepsy at UF and the Scientific Director of the Magnetoencephalography (MEG) Laboratory. His research interests are 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 the study of integrative brain function, specifically language, using electrophysiological and neuroimaging modalities.
Peggy Borum
Peggy 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 holds 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
Matthew Farrer
Matt 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. In recent years his work 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.
Carolina Maciel
Carolina 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 Associate Professor of Neurology at UF. Her research focuses on improving prognostication techniques and understanding the impact of cortical electrical phenomena (seizures and cortical spreading depolarization) after acute brain injury.
Steven Roper
Steve 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.
Reinhard Laubenbacher
Reinhard received the PhD in pure mathematics from Northwestern University. His research interest is broadly in the field of computational and mathematical systems biology. Prior to coming to UF he was Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Connecticut, where he directed the Center for Quantitative Medicine. Currently Professor of Medicine at UF, he directs the Laboratory of Systems Medicine, where his group pursues interdisciplinary work with clinicians in a variety of problems in systems biology. In 2024, he was elected President of the worldwide Society for Mathematical Biology.
Coralie De Hemptinne
Cora earned a PhD in Neuroscience form the Universite de Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. Currently as Associate Professor of Neurology at UF, her research interest is in the neurophysiology of neurological disease using chronic invasive recordings. In 2022, she was one of three scientists nationwide to receive the Parkinson’s Foundation’s Stanley Fahn Junior Faculty Award.
Ibrahim Tuna
Ibrahim received his medical degree from Marmara University, Turkey. He trained in pediatric radiology at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York, and neuroradiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is currently professor of Neuroradiology at UF and serves as director of functional MRI. His research interests are broadly in the area of advanced neuroimaging modalities for neurological disease.
External Collaborators
Sai Bavisetty
Sai is a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Following a master’s degree in mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India, he completed a Ph.D. in pure mathematics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, studying a categorical framework for descent, focusing on how complex structures can be decomposed and reconstructed from simpler components. Sai’s current work uses topological tools to explore how the structure of biological networks gives rise to emergent phenotypes, in contexts ranging from gene regulation to neuroscience. His broader interests include interpretable machine learning, network science, and topological methods.
Coordinator
Amanda James
Amanda 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.
Alumni
Manish Amin
Manish obtained a double major in physics and mathematics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and went on to a PhD in diffusion MRI. Following a short post-doctoral stint at UF when he also worked on epilepsy imaging, Manish now pursues a career in industry.
Alexander Cerquera
Alex obtained a PhD in neurosensory science from Carl von Ossietzky Universitaet in Oldenburg, Germany. Interested in biomedical and neural signal processing, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow on the autonomic signatures of temporal lobe epilepsy on the electrocardiographic signal. Alex now pursues a career in industry.
Sreya Malladi
Sreya obtained a bachelor’s in Neuroscience at the UF. Interested in behavior, she worked in the effects of epilepsy surgery on human creative abilities.
Mircea Chelaru
Mircea trained in electronics engineering before switching careers to neuroscience, with appointments at Duke University, the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and the University of Texas-Houston. As adjunct Assistant Professor at UF with commitment to the Wilder Center, he worked broadly in neural signal processing.
Mark Ettinger
Mark graduated from MIT with degrees in physics and mathematics and completed a PhD in pure mathematics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. As adjunct Assistant Professor at UF with commitment to the Wilder Center, he worked on algorithms for EEG data analysis.
Kajal Patel
Kajal graduated from the University of Manchester Medical School in the UK, where she also completed a master’s in research methods. She participated in a number of research projects at the Wilder Center with the epilepsy faculty before going on to a neurology residency at Cleveland Clinic.
