People

Akram founded the Bakkour Memory and Decision lab in 2020. He received a BS in Neuroscience from Brown University and a PhD in Neuroscience from The University of Texas at Austin. Akram then completed his postdoctoral training at Columbia University before moving to Chicago. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at The University of Chicago.

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Hannah Kim is a postdoc in the Bakkour Lab. Her research focuses on how past experience influences cognitive processes like attention, decision making and response selection, with a particular focus on aversive learning.

Ata Karagoz is a postdoc in the Bakkour lab. He received a BS in Neuroscience at The University of Texas at Austin and worked as a lab manager there for two years following graduation. He then went on to receive his PhD in Psychological and Brain Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. At Wash U, he worked at an intersection of event memory, cognitive control, and reinforcement learning. He is broadly interested in how we learn internal models of the world and adaptively switch between these models to guide our decisions.

Abby graduated from the University of Chicago in 2023 with a double-major in Neuroscience and Psychology with Honors. She is broadly interested in how various facets of our internal environment (e.g., neurotransmitter/hormone levels, curiosity) and external environment (e.g., stressors, risks) alter how we remember and make decisions about our world. Moreover, what drives adaptive and maladaptive decision-making, and how are these processes influenced by other cognitive factors (e.g., motivation, affect, mental health disorders)? She is growingly interested in how this knowledge could be implemented in many areas of society, such as policy, clinical work, and consumer psychology. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, baking, walking/biking along the lakefront path, trying new coffee/tea places, and playing with her cat!

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Sammi Weiss graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2023 with a degree in Neuroscience, and she joined the Bakkour lab in 2024 as a Study Coordinator. She is interested in the intersection of neurocognitive and sociocultural factors that influence behavior and affect treatment response in patients with eating disorders and other mental illnesses. She is also interested in research related to the dissemination and implementation of research findings into clinical practice. In the future, she plans to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology and a career in eating disorders research. Outside of lab, Sammi enjoys hiking, doing yoga, and spending time with friends and family.

Euan is a doctoral student in the Cognitive Psychology Program. He received his B.A. in Psychology from New York University, before working as a Research Specialist at the University of Pennsylvania for two years. He is broadly interested in how structured information about the world is encoded in memory, and how this knowledge is used to facilitate flexible decision-making. Outside the lab, Euan spends his time playing the guitar, watching live music, and exploring Chicago with his camera.

Xinyue is a doctoral student in the Cognitive Psychology Program. She previously completed the MA Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS) at the University of Chicago and conducted her thesis research in the lab. As an undergraduate student at the University of California, San Diego, she double majored in Psychology and Communication. She is broadly interested in the cognitive mechanisms of episodic memory and decision-making, and the interactions between them. During her free time, Xinyue enjoys anime, video games, films and traveling.

Seoyoung is a doctoral student in the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience program. She received her B.A. in Psychology from New York University Abu Dhabi and her M.Sc. in Cognitive Science from the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences at the University of Trento, Italy. Seoyoung is broadly interested in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the interaction between memory and decision-making. In her spare time, she likes to play the violin, piano, bake, and watch random videos that are recommended by the algorithm.

Sherain graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign in 2025 with a B.S. in Cognitive Psychology. She is broadly interested in exploring the neural mechanisms underlying memorability and language processing. In her free time, she enjoys writing, reading historical books, listening to music, enjoying food, and watching stand-up comedy.

Jalal is a master’s student in the Biomedical Sciences program at UChicago. He earned his B.S in Neuroscience from UCLA in 2025, and he is broadly interested in how learning and memory shape decision-making. In his free time, he enjoys playing tennis, watching sports, reading, and trying new restaurants.

Maya is a fourth-year undergraduate student majoring in Neuroscience at UChicago. She is particularly interested in the psychological and neural factors underlying decision making and behavior. In her spare time, she enjoys drawing, listening to jazz, and playing tennis.