Jake grew up in Indiana before attending Loyola University New Orleans where he earned a BaS in Psychology. He completed his undergraduate thesis work in Dr. Kate Yurgil's cognitive neuroscience lab using EEG to measure context-dependent responses to facial expressions. Before coming to Penn State, he worked as a research assistant in the Kessler Foundation's Social Cognition and Neuroscience Lab under Dr. Helen Genova administering neuropsychological batteries and collecting fMRI data from clinical populations. Jake is deeply interested in how real-time readouts of brain state can help explain variation in behavior, and is curious about the role of cortical astrocytes in synchronous neural activity. He enjoys taking pictures of small lifeforms while hiking, Wikipedia rabbit holes, open-world survival-craft games, and learning new things.