# Lab Members ![Lab Members](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/2026-11/MC_WebsiteGraphics_Cropped_LabMembers.png?itok=_NbwQYUB) ### Dr. Mark S. Chen Dr. Chen’s research focuses broadly on how emotion processes shape resilience and risk for psychopathology, with a focus on depression, anxiety, and other distress disorders. He studies these processes across cultural, developmental, and situational contexts toward a refined understanding of context-sensitive, flexible behaviors that facilitate adaptation. His work is multidisciplinary and leverages a multi-method approach, ranging from laboratory experiments and physiological measures to large-scale longitudinal studies, ecological momentary assessments with smartphones and wearables, and computational and linguistic methods. His research includes both clinical and normative populations and compares findings across cultures using cross-national surveys, behavioral tasks, and meta-analyses. Dr. Chen obtained his PhD in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University and completed his clinical internship at Weill Cornell Medical College. Prior to arriving at Harvard in Fall 2026, he was a Susan Nolen-Hoeksema Postdoctoral Associate at Yale University. His research has appeared in top-tier journals including *Nature Human Behaviour*, *Nature Mental Health*, *American Psychologist*, *Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science*, and *Clinical Psychological Science*. He has received multiple awards, such as the Career Development Leadership Program Award from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, the Distinguished Dissertation Award from the Society of Clinical Psychology, the President’s Award from the Society for Research in Psychopathology, and the Spotlight on a Mentor Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. ![mark](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__480x480/public/2026-10/MC_WebsiteGraphics_Mark.png?itok=mYxr_JxC) --- ### Emma Palermo **Graduate Student** Emma entered the Clinical Science PhD Program in the fall of 2025. She completed her BA in Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2022. Prior to joining the Lab, Emma worked as a clinical research assistant at McLean Hospital under the supervision of Dr. Diego Pizzagalli studying emotions and stress in individuals with remitted depression. Broadly, she is interested in using EMA and passive data collection to study factors that influence the use and effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies in individuals with psychopathology. She is especially interested in understanding how information derived from such methods can be used to develop personalized interventions, particularly just-in-time adaptive interventions. ![emma photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/IMG_9277%202.jpg?itok=RoEe44sc) ### Aaron Liu **Graduate Student** Aaron Liu was accepted for the Clinical Science PhD program at Harvard University in the Fall of 2026. After graduating from Southern University of Science and Technology in China with a B.S. in biomedical science, he transitioned into the field of clinical psychology and completed his M.A. in the Psychology in Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University, during which he helped investigate the physiological and neural mechanisms underlying emotion regulation in depression and anxiety with Dr. Doug Mennin. He is interested in using computational approaches to understand how the dynamic emotion regulation process is profoundly shaped by situational, individual, and cultural contexts, and how flexibility can inform more personalized and context-sensitive approaches to mental health care. ![aaron photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/IMG_70251.jpg?itok=HIfSbYZY) ### Isabella (Bella) Peckinpaugh **Graduate Student** Bella entered the Clinical Science PhD program in Fall 2026. She previously completed her post-bac at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with Dr. Maital Neta and Dr. Tim Nelson, and her B.S. in Psychology at Purdue University with minors in Statistics and Spanish. At Purdue, she worked in Dr. Dan Foti’s PACER lab and Dr. Sean Lane’s REACT lab. Bella is broadly interested in using computational, experience sampling, and longitudinal methods to examine factors that influence emotion regulation and psychopathology across development. ![bella photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/HarvardPhoto_0.jpg?itok=AnRlbL3J) ### Heeya Ajwani **Lab Manager** Heeya received her B.S. in Psychology and a certification in Social Work from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2026. During her undergraduate years, she worked in Dr. Katherine Dixon-Gordon’s Clinical Affective Science Lab, conducting her senior thesis examining the role of emotional discordance (i.e., between physiological and subjective experiences) in alexithymia and internalizing psychopathology. Broadly, she aims to use multimodal and computational methods to examine emotional processes across clinical and non-clinical populations to understand how valence, context, and interpersonal factors influence emotional states. ![heeya image](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/_MG_2703_1.jpeg?itok=6eSSAs9j) ### Simon Li **Collaborating Graduate Student** Simon M. Li is a 3rd-year doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at Boston University, where he collaborates with Dr. Mark Chen as a graduate student collaborator in the EPIC Lab at Harvard. His research focuses on how context (e.g., temporal, situational, and cultural contexts) influences emotion regulation processes and suicidal thoughts independently and collectively. ![simon photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/IMG_1793%20%281%29%202.jpeg?itok=U0t6uxrY) ### Rachel Martino **Collaborating Graduate Student** Rachel (she/her) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Clinical Science program at Harvard University, where she works with Dr. Mark Hatzenbuehler in the Biopsychosocial Effects of Stigma Lab. Broadly, her research examines how stigma, discrimination, and broader social contexts shape the ways people experience, understand, express, and regulate their emotions and perceive emotions in others. Her clinical work focuses on adolescents and young adults with anxiety disorders, with a particular interest in working with LGBTQ+ youth and their families. ![rachel photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/rache%20photo.jpg?itok=ObvxlCv0) ### Dr. Kaiwen Bi **Research Associate** Kaiwen is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago and long-term collaborator of the lab. Kaiwen earned his Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Hong Kong and his B.A. in Psychology from Columbia University. Conceptually, he aims to understand how familial and interpersonal contexts and stressful life events shape adolescent emotion regulation and mental health across development. Methodologically, he is passionate about intensive longitudinal and multi-wave designs, advanced longitudinal modeling, and causal inference methods, which he uses to study related developmental processes across different timescales in many of his collaborations with the lab. ![kaiwen](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/26901789660637_.pic_hd%20%281%29.jpg?itok=_J5REiqm) ### Shanbairong Nie **Postgraduate Research Assistant** Shanbairong graduated from Hamilton College with a BA in Psychology in 2026. Her research interests focus on how early adversity shapes adolescents' emotion regulation abilities, and how these processes contribute to the development of depression, anxiety, or self-destructive behaviors. In the lab, she is leading the lab-wide pipeline to process audio and language data to support various projects examine how acoustic and linguistic features can be used to understand information processing, schema, and emotion regulation. She hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in the future. ![bairong photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/bairong%20photo.jpg?itok=WzWQuRQA) ### Ruby Codrington **Undergraduate Research Assistant** Ruby is a junior at Harvard College studying cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology with a secondary in African American studies. She is interested in how context and culture impact what strategies people use to regulate their emotions, as well as the effectiveness of those strategies. As a research assistant, she is excited to understand the research process from start to finish, especially in the context of a newly established and growing lab! ![ruby](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/1_1_ratio_ruby_photo.jpg?itok=FJdC77ye) ### Layia Ussery **Undergraduate Research Assistant** Layia is an undergraduate research assistant in the EPIC lab. She is a senior at Harvard College studying Psychology and History of Science. Her research interests include severe psychopathology, resilience, emotion regulation and flexibility, and mental health equity, particularly among trauma-exposed populations. She hopes to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology. ![layia](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/headshot_Layia%20U..JPEG?itok=tcG9XnFS) ### Jith Nambiar **Undergraduate Research Assistant** Jith is a third year at Harvard College studying Psychology with a secondary in the Comparative Study of Religion. He is very interested in looking at psychological adjustment and emotional regulation in various AYA populations and hopes to go to medical school and be a pediatric oncologist. ![jith](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/jith%20photo.png?itok=qPCEXQW5) ### Natalia Howard Pagán **Undergraduate Research Assistant** Natalia is a sophomore at Harvard College concentrating in Psychology on the Cognitive Science (Mind, Brain, and Behavior) Track. She is particularly interested in developmental psychopathology, treatment seeking, and social influences on mental health and looks forward to future research and ultimately becoming a clinical psychologist. ![natalia](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/profile%20picture.png?itok=cs09gVv9) ### Philipp Standring **Undergraduate Research Assistant** Philipp is a senior majoring in psychology at Boston University. He interested in the antecedents and consequences of emotion regulation processes in daily life. He looks forward to graduating and either starting a PhD in clinical psychology or finding a post-bac research position. ![philipp photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/philippprofilephoto_0.jpg?itok=0A8d5muq) ### Elizabeth Zhu **Undergraduate Research Assistant** Elizabeth Zhu is a final-year undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and Cognitive Science at Peking University. She is interested in the cognitive-affective mechanisms underlying emotion regulation and how adverse life experiences influence these processes. She hopes to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology and investigate how these processes contribute to emotional difficulties ![elizabeth](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/Elizabeth_Zhu.jpg?itok=y0RwZnhA) ### Lucky Chen **Lab Mascot** Lucky is a corgi born in December 2021, yet convinced that he is still a puppy. He enjoys belly rubs, snacks, long walks, and extended naps in the afternoon. He is actively working on his emotion regulation skills, with a particular focus on downregulating his constant excitement and his protective instincts for everyone in the lab. ![lucky](/sites/g/files/omnuum13121/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-10/65760.jpg?itok=qhl2uShp) [ Check out our publications! arrow\_circle\_right ](/all-publications)