Dr. Lucina Uddin on studying functional brain networks in humans and supporting her trainees' goals

As an undergraduate, Lucina Uddin found her calling for studying the neural bases of self-cognition via a self-described “process of elimination.” As a child of Bangladeshi immigrants, Lucina prized a career in medicine and started on the pre-med track. However, she found herself more engaged by questions of human intelligence and consciousness than excited by the path to medical school. With the guidance of a helpful mentor, Dr. Eran Zaidel, Lucina began her PhD at UCLA studying self-perception in split-brain patients using non-invasive imaging techniques like fMRI, EEG and TMS. Her doctoral research guided her interests in self-perception in autism and pediatric neuroscience that she would follow throughout her career. After defending, she completed two postdocs: one at NYU in the lab of Dr. Xavier Castellanos where she studied resting state functional connectivity using fMRI, and a second with Dr. Vinod Menon at Stanford. At Stanford, Lucina investigated the role of the salience network and the insula in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. After persevering through a challenging and discouraging job search during the financial crisis of 2008, Lucina finally started her own lab at the University of Miami in 2012. There, her research on cognitive flexibility in both neurotypical and atypical populations has been propelled by both her own background as well as the interests of her students. Recently, Lucina was appointed as Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Analysis Core at her alma mater, UCLA’s, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. In Los Angeles, she continues her cognitive neuroscience research while practicing holistic mentorship and integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to best support the next generation of impactful researchers.