Nathalia Bianchini Esper, PhD
Nathalia Bianchini Esper, PhD, is a scientific software engineering generalist for the Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI) core within the Center for Strategic Data Initiatives (SDI) at the Child Mind Institute. She collaborates with internal teams to define needs, objectives, and deliverables for new efforts and provides technical solutions to meet them. Dr. Esper’s responsibilities include developing and implementing pipelines for the quality control and analysis of disparate types of data, programming cognitive tasks and machine learning utilities.
Dr. Esper’s research is focused on neuroimaging studies. She has extensive experience working in a research institute, conducting functional and structural MRI studies. During her academic career, Dr. Esper focused on developing novel fMRI processing methods. Dr. Esper completed her doctoral degree in neuroscience at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. Her dissertation focused on the structural MRI and functional connectivity in infants with congenital microcephaly associated with Zika virus infection.
Prior to joining the Child Mind Institute, Dr. Esper worked at Brain Institute of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil, supporting researchers in the day-to-day operations of fMRI, fNIRS, and TMS projects and maintaining the neuroinformatics infrastructure of the institute. Her work there generated a wide collaboration network, leading Dr. Esper to study microcephaly caused by Zika virus, dyslexia, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, crack cocaine addiction, excessive use of social media, and the brain effects on children in violent environments.
Education
- BS, Computer Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
- MS, Electrical Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
- PhD, Neuroscience, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
