Meet Our Team!
Lab Director
Rajesh Kana, Ph.D.
Dr. Rajesh Kana is the associate dean for graduate and continuing studies at the UAB College of Arts & Sciences and professor in the Department of Psychology. He received his Ph.D. in psycholinguistics from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India. As a William Fulbright Fellow, Dr. Kana was trained in neuroimaging from UCLA, followed by a postdoctoral training in using neuroimaging technique to study autism at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. Dr. Kana’s interests focus on basic and translational research on the neurobiology of autism. He uses a variety of brain imaging techniques, such as functional MRI, structural MRI, diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and MR Spectroscopy to understand the functional and anatomical organization of the brain in autism. Dr. Kana studies social cognition, language comprehension, executive functions, and the impact of behavioral interventions on the brain in autistic children and adults.
Email: rkana@uab.edu
Lab Staff
Paula Argueta, B.S.
Elizabeth Valles-Capetillo, Ph.D.
Jeevika Thota, B.Tech.
Lucas Martin, B.A.
Pinar Demirayak, Ph.D.
Graduate Researchers
McKayla Kurtz, B.S.
Halla Stallworth, B.S.
Meagan Beckerson, M.A.
Fariea Bakul, M.S.
Undergraduate Researchers
Caroline Vanderburgh
Grace McClain
Julia Dominguez
Lily Hicks
Collaborators
Sarah O’Kelley, Ph.D.
Smitha Karavallil Achuthan, Ph.D.