Maira Karan

After receiving my PhD in psychology from UCLA in 2023, I joined the Zeitzer Circadian Research Lab and department of psychiatry & behavioral sciences at Stanford as a postdoctoral fellow. My doctoral training focused on investigating developmental trajectories of positive human behaviors, such as empathy and prosociality, and how the adolescent brain matures in concert to support these behaviors using fMRI. At Stanford, I am working on studies aimed at improving adolescent sleep through multidimensional intervention efforts and examining the physiological benefits of the outdoors. Another burgeoning area of my research aims to examine the link between environmental climate and adolescent sleep health using machine-learning techniques. In addition to conducting research, I have a deep and demonstrated passion for uplifting underrepresented individuals in(to) the fields of psychology and neuroscience, and received a certificate in critical consciousness and anti-oppressive practices from Stanford's Office of Inclusion Belonging and Intergroup Communication in 2024.