Team

	Martin Dresler is principal investigator of the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab. Trained in biopsychology, philosophy and mathematics, he did his PhD and postdoc on cognitive neuroscience topics at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Oxford University and Stanford University before establishing his lab at the Donders Institute. Now he is mainly busy with coordinating nerds and herding cats.
	Sofia Tzioridou did a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a master’s degree in cognitive and clinical neuroscience at Goldsmith’s University of London. After working as a research assistant at the Donders Institute and at Oxford University, she did her PhD on lucid dreaming at Marburg University. As lab manager, she now keeps the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab running.
	Boris Nikolai Konrad leads the mnemonics program in the lab. Trained in physics and computer science at the Technical University Dortmund and University of Reading, he switched to psychology for his PhD on the neural mechanisms underlying superior memory skills at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry. Being a professional memory trainer and successful memory athlete himself since many years, he recently failed to keep his superhero identity as the Memory Man a secret any longer.
	Leonore Bovy spent already some years at the Donders Institute as a cognitive neuroscience student and research assistant before finally submitting to the third offer for a PhD position in the lab. After her PhD on sleep and memory bias in depression, she works on postdoctoral and industrial data science projects, and pursues further strictly scientific projects in black metal and Dungeons & Dragons research.
	Yevgenia Rosenblum did her bachelor and master in neurobiology at Tel Aviv University. During her PhD, also at Tel Aviv University, she studied cognitive dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases and its association with impaired sleep using EEG. In her postdoc at the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab, she investigates the structure of sleep in neurodegenerative diseases.
	Nico Adelhöfer did a bachelor and master in psychology at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, and a PhD and postdoc at Technical University Dresden, with research stays at Bern University and Aarhus University. At the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab, he applies transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation on the sleeping brain to modulate dream content.
	Paul Zerr has been researching visual psychophysics, perception, working memory and eye movements at Utrecht University, Hamburg University and the Icelandic University for 8 years. As a postdoc at the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab he is now investigating eye movements during dreaming, as well as lucid dreaming induction using sensory stimulation and VR.
	Fan Li did a BE in Communication Engineering, a ME in Controlling Science & Engineering, and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Dalian Polytechnic University, China. She is an assistant professor in Dalian University of Technology and assistant researcher in the Central Hospital of Dalian University of Technology. As a postdoc in the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab, she focuses on the analysis of large sleep datasets and sleep-related memory consolidation.
	Kristoffer Appel earned his PhD in Cognitive Science from Osnabrück University, where he founded the university’s sleep laboratory and conducted research at the intersection of sleep, dreaming, and technology. He was a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich and is the founder/CEO of the non-profit Institute of Sleep and Dream Technologies in Hamburg. In the Sleep & Memory Lab, he developes new approaches to sleep research, in particular citizen science methods.
	Abdel Rayan has a background in medicine, systems, and computational neuroscience. During his PhD at Ruhr University Bochum and postdoc at the Donders Centre for Neuroscience, he investigated hippocampal memory processes and data-driven approaches for automated sleep scoring in rodents. His current work focuses on data-driven classification of human sleep with the goal of identifying sleep substates beyond conventional sleep stages.
	Mariana de Carvalho Pereira did a bachelor in telecommunication engineering at Federal University of São João del-Rei, Brazil, with research stays in Birmingham and Chicago, working with MRI, REM sleep disorders, and Parkinson’s disease. During her masters in computational engineering at University of Campinas, Brazil, she investigated Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis using MRI and deep learning. In her PhD in the Sleep & Memory Lab she investigates the neurobiology of human REM sleep. Besides science, she loves traveling, cooking, lifting weights, and painting watercolor.
	Niloy Sikder did a bachelor in electronics and communication engineering and a master in computer science and engineering at Khulna University, Bangladesh. In his PhD at the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab and Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences, he investigates big sleep data with machine learning strategies.
	Xinyuan Chen did a bachelor in applied psychology at Shandong Normal University, Jinan, and a master in cognitive neuroscience at Southwest University, Chongqing. In her PhD at the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab, she investigates the cognitive neuroscience of REM sleep using combined fMRI/EEG recordings.
	Somi Ataei did a bachelor in textile engineering at Amir Kabir University of Technology, Tehran, and a master in psychology at Tehran University. For her PhD at Ruhr University Bochum in collaboration with the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab, she investigates the cognitive neuroscience of dreaming.
	Ali Saberi completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering at Sharif University of Technology, Tehran. Following a period of industry experience, he returned to academia to pursue his PhD at the Donders Sleep and Memory Lab, focusing on the development of a data infrastructure for big sleep data. Ali is enthusiastic about data science and engineering, finding joy in programming and software development, and expressing a keen interest in entrepreneurship.
	Bagmish Sabhapondit did a BSc in chemistry at Jagannath Barooah University, a MA in psychology at the University of Delhi, and a MSc in cognitive science at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar. Combining his passion for music and neuroscience, for his PhD in collaboration with Freie Universität Berlin and Endel.io within the Lullabyte doctoral network, he aims to explore how AI-generated music can enhance sleep by using wearable sleep EEG in home environments.
	Karolina Raczek did her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in neurobiology at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. During her PhD at the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab and C-Lab at JU, she investigates the cognitive neuroscience of lucid dreaming using fMRI and wearable EEG. She also coordinates the International Study on Lucid Dreaming Expertise (ISoLDE).
	Anastasiya Paltarzhitskaya did a bachelor in integrated electrical engineering and computer science at Belarusian State University, Minsk, and a master in psychology at the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, Moscow. As a research assistant in the Sleep & Memory Lab, she works on different sleep neuroimaging projects. Her research interests include sleep, consciousness, philosophy of mind and interdisciplinary brain research, where she enjoys both intellectual discourse and the exploration of novel concepts.
	Stefan Zwerver completed his bachelor and master in medical biology (neurobiology) at Radboud University. He is passionate about the future of treatments for disorders such as PTSD and nightmare disorder through sleep-based interventions. He works as a research assistant at the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab and contributes to our lucid dreaming research.
	Melisa Kocabaş majored in psychology at Koç University in İstanbul, Turkey and is currently doing her research master in cognitive neuroscience at Radboud. During her internship at the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab, she will be working in a combination of EEG and MRI studies with a focus on lucid dreaming expertise. Aside from these scientific endeavors, she juggles studying philosophy of mind and language and swimming.
	Shuyue Tan did a bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Ottawa. She is a part-time research assistant at the OHPsych lab at Shenzhen University. Shuyue is currently doing her master’s degree in cognitive neuroscience at Radboud University. As a trainee at the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab, she focuses on the study of lucid dreaming.
	Kopal Agarwal is a Research Master’s student in Cognitive Neuroscience at Radboud University and is currently an intern at the Donders Sleep & Memory Lab. Her research interests focus on sleep-dependent memory consolidation, neural oscillations during NREM sleep, and targeted memory reactivation, with a broader interest in understanding how sleep supports learning and cognition.
	…and we want YOU to join!