As a Jane Coffin Childs postdoctoral fellow and Charles H. Revson Senior Biomedical Science fellow in the Falkner Lab lab at Princeton University, I investigate how sex-hormones that fluctuate over hours to days reshape neural computations that guide moment-to-moment decisions. By combining systems neuroscience and lonitudinal Neuropixels recordings with machine-learning approaches for quantifying social behavior and tools for hormonal state measurement and manipulation, I bring a systems and computational lens to neuroendocrinology. The long-term vision for my future independent lab is to establish a unifying framework of hormonal action on the brain across the lifespan, including pregnancy, post-partum and peri-menopause, with the ultimate goal of informing interventions when adaptive plasticity becomes maladaptive such as in post-partum depression.

Previously, as a Herchel Smith PhD Fellow, in the Polley Lab at Harvard University, I studied how interconnected neural circuits transform sensation into perception. I investigated how sensory representations are shaped by internal state, expectations, and compensatory plasticity following sensory loss, using multi-region electrophysiology across auditory and limbic circuits, projection-specific optogenetic tagging, and optical measurements of neuromodulator release. I brought this systems neuroscience toolkit to the study of complex, naturalistic social behaviors and brain-body physiology during my postdoctoral work.

My interdisciplinary trajectory into neuroscience began during my undergraduate studies at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in India where I majored in Electrical Engineering, minored in Biomedical Engineering and I was drawn to applying quantitative approaches to biological questions.

Alongside science, feminism and equity have been enduring passions of mine, shaped by my experiences growing up as a woman in India. I contribute to enhancing visibility of women neuroscientists by interviewing for Stories of WiN and it is especially meaningful to bring these parallel interests together in my research on women's mental health.

I grew up in Chennai, India where we only have three seasons - hot, hotter and hottest, so I naturally fell in love with winter when I first moved to Boston. Fall and winter continue to be my favorite seasons now! While I mostly study brains, I ocassionaly fly planes, and my love for nature and adventure never wanes :) So outside the lab, you can find me hiking, skiing, climbing, biking, running and doing most things outdoors!