Music, Mind and Body Lab Personnel

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Headshots of the 29 people involved in the Music, Mind, and Body Lab

Director

Anthony Brandt
Professor of Composition and Theory, Shepherd School of Music
Artistic Director, Musiqa

Rice Researchers

Faculty

Karl Blench
Composer
Lecturer in Music, Shepherd School of Music

Melia Bonomo
Lecturer, Department of Physics and Astronomy

Bryan Denny
Associate Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences
Director, Translational Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab

Christopher P. Fagundes
Professor, Psychological Sciences
Director, Institute for Health Resilience & Innovation

Simon Fischer-Baum
Associate Professor, Psychological Science
Director, T.L.L. Temple Neuroplasticity Laboratory
(On leave for the 2025-2026 academic year at the National Science Foundation)

Miguel Harth-Bedoya
Distinguished Director of Orchestras and Professor of Conducting, Shepherd School of Music

Vicente Ordóñez-Román
Associate Professor, Computer Science
Member, Ken Kennedy Institute

Staff

Amara Anyanwu 
Psychology Research Coordinator, Rice University

Students

Catherine He
PhD student, Vislang Lab, Computer Science Department

Kayla Clark, M.A.
PhD Candidate, Neuroscience of Memory, Mood, and Aging Lab
Department of Psychological Sciences, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Research Interest Group

Wenshi Chen
Undergraduate in Musicology and Science & Technology Studies
Shepherd School of Music

Anagha Deepak
Undergraduate Neuroscience Major

Ananya Nair
Undergraduate in Biosciences

 

Cross-Institutional Collaborators

Anna Abraham
E. Paul Torrance Professor & Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity, The University of Georgia

Nanki Chugh ('25)
Creative Education Director, Musiqa
Neuroarts consultant and researcher

Jose-Luis Contreras-Vidal
Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor
Director, NSF IUCRC BRAIN Center, The University of Houston

Aime Aguilar-Herrera

Yoshua Lima-Carmona

Annel Pacheco-Ramirez

Made Ayu Desiari, S.Sn., M.Sn.
Dosen/Assistant Professor of Dance, Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI) Bali

Atiya Dhala, M.D.
Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine in Clinical Surgery
Weill Cornell Medicine, New York and Houston Methodist Academic Institute
Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor, Texas A&M School of Medicine
Director of Educational and Translational Research in Critical Care
Houston Methodist Hospital

Elkhonon Goldberg
Director, Luria Neuroscience Institute

Benjamin Hayden, M.D.
Professor of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine
Director, Hayden Lab

Badie Khaleghian
Composer and multimedia artist
Assistant Professor of Digital Music, Bowdoin College

Cokorda Bagus Jaya Lesmana
Professor, Community and Cultural Psychiatry, Udayana University

J. Todd Frazier
Senior Director and Gerald H. Dubin, M.D. Presidential Distinguished Centennial Chair in the Arts of Medicine, Center for Performing Arts Medicine, Houston Methodist

Andy Noble
Associate Chair/Professor of Dance, Sam Houston State University
Co-Artistic Director, NobleMotion Dance

Dionne Noble
Professor of Dance, Sam Houston State University
Co-Artistic Director, NobleMotion Dance

Andrew Nordin, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston
Director, Nordin Lab

Dr. Mei Rui
Concert pianist
Assistant Professor, Neurosurgery
Founding Director, Music-in-Medicine at MD Anderson

I Gde Made Indra Sadguna, S.Sn., M.Sn., Ph.D.
Dosen/Assistant Professor of Karawitan
Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI) Bali

Lydia Wu-Chung, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh

Students

Ana Chavez
Neuroscience PhD Student
Hayden Lab, Baylor College of Medicine

Elizabeth Mickiewicz
Research Technician, Baylor College of Medicine