Meet the Neuroplicity Team

Olson is a Duke Art, Art History & Visual Studies faculty member who co-led the Neuroplicity project and shaped the vision for Neuroplicity's media, storytelling, and visual culture work.

Sherwood is a Duke Biology faculty member and neuroscientist who co-led the Neuroplicity project and served as a scientific mentor for the team.

Wentzell served as postdoctoral project manager from May 2014 until May 2016 after completing her doctorate in Duke Biology. She then went to Stanford University to serve as Research Communities Manager for Undergraduate Research.

Currently, Wentzell is the Executive Director of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University. She shared her perspective on Bass Connections and her work with Neuroplicity in a September 2016 news article.

Kipervaser is a multimedia artist and Duke MFAEDA alumna (2015) who joined Neuroplicity in Fall 2016 to mentor and manage video production.

Her work has shown internationally, and her films are distributed by CFMDC, Alchemiya, Projectr, and Canyon Cinema.

striegl served as project manager from May 2014 until May 2016. She received her MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts from Duke in 2016.

striegl then completed her PhD in Intermedia Arts, Writing and Performance at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where she currently serves as Managing Director of the Media Archaeology Lab.

Tsukayama first served as an undergraduate team member in the inaugural cohort of the Neuroplicity project. After graduating with a BS in Neuroscience in 2015, she continued on as Neuroplicity's senior video producer. Tsukayama spoke about Neuroplicity in a video interview, "Bass Connections in Brain & Society: Brain Week 2016."

Tsukayama then began a career in multimedia commmunication, first at Meredith College and currently at Interstaff, a nursing staffing company. She recently looked back on her experience with Neuroplicity in a November 2024 Bass Connections Alumni Profile.

Goel was a neuroscience and chemistry undergraduate who contributed to the undergraduate team for two years. Upon graduating from Duke in 2016, he went on to earn his MD from Duke University School of Medicine and served as a resident at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine.

Currently, Goel is a primary care clinician in Northern California.

Han was a Duke '19 neuroscience major, education minor, and documentary studies certificate student who served as a primary animator in the final year of the project.

Upon graduating from Duke, Han completed her Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree from the University of California, San Francisco.

Kearse was a member of the inaugural student team, graduating with a degree in neuroscience in 2015.

After graduating from Duke, Kearse earned her MA in Medical Physiology from Case Western Reserve University, her MD from The Ohio State University College of Medicine, and, most recently, her neurology residency at Emory University School of Medicine.

Li was a Duke '19 computer science student who contributed Unity 3D/C# coding and character design for Neuroplicity's game-development work.

After graduating from Duke, Li has worked in software engineering, currently serving as a Senior Software Engineer for Growth at Ramp in New York.

Manocha was a Duke '19 student majoring in computer science and electrical & computer engineering who used her 3D modeling experience in Autodesk Maya to design game-development assets for Neuroplicity.

After graduating from Duke, Manocha pursued her PhD in Computer Science at Princeton University and currently works as an Applied Scientist at Amazon Web Services.

Shpanskaya was a Duke '15 neuroscience student who went on to earn her MD from Stanford University. She completed her radiology residency at Duke University Health System with a particular focus on neuroradiology and AI.

Tung was a team member in our final year of the Neuroplicity project, contributing to design, filming, editing, and animation. She graduated from Duke in 2020 with a degree in Psychology.

She is currently a graphic designer based in New York City.

Williams contributed to Neuroplicity for two years as an undergaduate team member, who served as a narrator for several Neuroplicity videos and led the development of Virion, Neuroplicity's game-based exploration of viral transmission in the nervous system. His experience with Neuroplicity was featured in "Four Views of Bass Connections at Duke."

Williams graduated Duke in 2018 with degrees in Neuroscience and Cinematic Arts, and taught for several years at the Turing School of Software & Design in Denver. He currently is Senior Software Engineer / Technical Lead at Jewelers Mutual Group in Raleigh, NC.

Xu was a Duke '19 student studying computer science, visual arts, and Japanese who contributed visual design and Unity 3D/C# programming for Virion game development.

Since graduating from Duke, Xu has worked for Yext as a software engineer.