Tristan Donaldson
Tristan graduated from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a B.A in Neuro-anthropology. His undergraduate degree combined coursework in cognitive neuroscience and biocultural anthropology to study how culture, brain and behavior are related. He took part in research at NYU Langone Hospital’s Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry as an assistant in the laboratory of Dr. Moriah Thomason. There, he assisted on projects using combined measures of MRI, biospecimens and behavioral assessments to study transgenerational patterns of neurodevelopment, identifying mechanisms through which pre and postnatal socio-environmental factors implicate childrens’ long-term behavioral health outcomes. After graduating, Tristan worked as a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) technician in a private practice medical setting using TMS to treat patients with various neurologic or psychiatric disorders. Tristan has since joined the Division of Neuropsychiatry and Neuromodulation at Massachusetts General Hospital as a clinical research coordinator. He plans to leverage his previous research and clinical experiences to contribute to translational research efforts toward optimizing neuromodulation-based treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders.