Dr. Sean A. P. Clouston, Lab Director

Dr. Clouston is a social epidemiologist and quantitative methodologist whose theoretical work takes a life course approach to understand social determinants of population aging. He is particularly interested in the application of causal analytic techniques including longitudinal regression discontinuity designs in longitudinal life course settings. His work has been published in disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals across topics in population and health sciences as well as medical and computational sciences. His work has been profiled in the Alzheimer’s Forum (Jan 28 2020) and has participated in news coverage for his work on News12, CBS, and NBC among others.

OUR TEAM MEMBERS

Collaboration is a central part of this work, as you will see from his extensive ties to national and international researchers.

CURRENT POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS

Dr. Minos Kritikos, Research Scientist

Dr. Kritikos is a neuroscientist in the Program of Public Health at SBU and the World Trade Center Health Program. His interests and expertise include neurobiological mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, learning and memory, cognitive aging and dementia. His current research focuses on PET/MRI neuroimaging, central and peripheral biomarkers of dementia, and neurocognitive, neurobehavioral and neuromotor performance as symptoms of neurodegenerative disease in late life. His studies are attempting to further our understanding of the underlying etiology for the observed mild cognitive impairment and dementia emerging in 9/11 responders. 

 

Dr. Douglas Hanes, Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Douglas W. Hanes is a postdoctoral research associate working with Dr. Sean Clouston, focusing on social inequalities and their effects on cognitive aging. His primary interest is in the role of institutions and policies in producing and maintaining social inequalities, including gender, sexuality, and racial inequalities. He is also interested in the measurement and testing of memory and cognitive performance, with particular emphasis on the role of inequalities and bias in the construction of cognitive assessments and in study design. Doug has a PhD in Political Science from McGill University, and is also affiliated with the Centre for Gender and Sexual Minority Health at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

Dr. Ginny Natale, Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Ginny Natale is an early-stage investigator focused on elucidating mechanisms between inflammatory changes, proteomics and dementia and/or cognitive decline trajectories in older adults. Her current works use a pattern recognition algorithm of longitudinal cognitive data and physical health measures to detect patterns of cognitive decline indicative of probable Alzheimer’s and related dementias (ADRD). She was awarded the Gerontological Society of America’s Diversity Junior Investigator Fellowship for 2020-2021. Dr. Natale is dedicated to a career as an independent investigator in the fields of Aging Epidemiology and ADRD.

PHD STUDENTS

Ms. Yunting Yun, Ph.D. Candidate

Yunting Yin is a Ph.D. student in the Computer Science department. Her research interests include speech and audio processing, natural language processing, and AI. She is working with Dr. Clouston on AI-based analyses of neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Her current research focuses on identifying biomarkers of aging and symptoms of cognitive diseases from acoustic features in video interviews.

GRADUATING PHD STUDENTS

Dr. Yun Zhang, Ph.D.

Dr. Zhang recently graduated from the Population Health track in the Program in Public Health at Stony Brook University. She was primarily mentored by Dr. Sean Clouston. Yun is interested in cognitive aging, long-term care, and hospital quality management. In her PhD research, she explored bidirectional longitudinal associations between changes of social resources and cognitive function.

RECENT VISITING RESEARCHERS

Ms. Lívia Matosinhos, Ph.D. Candidate

Ms. Matosinhos comes from the Departamento de Administração e Contabilidade in Brazil. She is working on questions relating to the impact of recessions on the distribution of healthcare resources around Brazil.