Jeffery A. Martin, PhD

Research Professor, Lab Director, Lab Co-Founder

Academic Credentials:

PhD, MS, MSc, BA, AA, AAS

Industry Certifications (partial):

ADPM, SPM, UPM, MCSE, MCT, MCSA, MCDBA, MCP+I, MCNE, CTT, CIW, i-Net+, A+, Network+, Project+, Linux+

Background:

Dr. Jeffery A. Martin is a CIIS and Harvard trained social scientist who researches personal transformation, and is a leading expert on non-symbolic consciousness (extraordinary well-being, enlightenment, nonduality, mystical experience, etc.). He specializes in bringing rigorous empirical research and testing to transformational techniques and theories that have previously been supported anecdotally. Jeffery’s academic focuses include: technology, psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and transformative studies. A bestselling author and award winning educator, he has co-edited, authored, or co-authored over 20 books and numerous other publications; appeared in a wide variety of media; and lectured broadly in both academic and public forums. In addition to his research and academic interests, Dr. Jeffery A. Martin is a successful entrepreneur, technologist, and business leader who has founded and sold companies in the technology, media, real estate, and wellness sectors. He currently serves in a variety of equity-based advisory positions for a range of companies within these industries. You can learn more about him at:http://www.drjefferymartin.com.

Nichol Bradford, MBA

Lab Executive Director,Lab Co-Founder

Academic Credentials:

MBA, BBA

Background:

Nichol Bradford is fascinated by human potential, and has always been interested in how technology can help individuals expand beyond their perceived limits to develop and transform themselves to the highest level.

She spent the last decade exploring these ideas in the online game industry, serving as a senior executive with responsibility for strategy, operations and marketing for major brands that include: Activision Blizzard, Disney, and Vivendi. Most recently she managed the operations of Blizzard properties, including World of Warcraft, in China.

Now, as the CEO of the Willow Group, Nichol is applying those same skills to the realm of elevating psychological well-being. Willow is a transformative technology company focused on employing rigorous scientific research to develop training protocols, hardware and software that can produce a reliable and positive change in the human experience.

Nichol has an MBA from Wharton School of Business in Strategy, and a BBA in Marketing from the University of Houston. She is a fellow of the British American Project, currently serves on the board of the Brandon Marshall Foundation for Mental Health, and is a former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Ariel Berwaldt, BSc

Lab Manager, Research Associate

Ari Berwaldt has a degree in Cognitive Science with experience in data science and neuroscience. He has long had an interest in improving the human condition and raising the quality of life using the most efficacious means available. Currently he focuses on meditation, nootropic, and neurohacking related technologies.

Gino Yu, PhD

Adjunct Professor

Associate Professor, Director of Digital Entertainment and Game Development in the school of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Dr. Patti Levin

Senior Research Scientist

Dr. Patti Levin is a clinical psychologist with over 40 years of experience in the field. She has worked with individual adults and couples, and has treated anxiety disorders, relationship problems, panic and phobia, self esteem, performance enhancement, PTSD, the integration and stabilization of awakening, and many other issues. She has used an eclectic, integrative approach including Internal Family Systems (IFS), and is an expert in EMDR therapy. A former senior supervisor at the Trauma Center in Boston with Bessel van der Kolk, MD for over 20 years, she has lectured, published, and taught internationally.

Karen Froendhoff, RPh, LAc

Research Scientist

Academic Credentials:

BA

Industry Certifications (partial):

RPh, LAc

Background:

Karen is a microbiologist, pharmacist, and acupuncturist, who specializes in alternative health and wellbeing. Her diverse career has included spending a decade as a researcher for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and being a retail pharmacist for CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart. Her many awards include being a national honoree of Speaking of Women’s health, and being designated the community pharmacist of the year by Walmart, Inc. She is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati.

Sanjay Manchanda, PhD

Senior Research Scientist

Background:

Sanjay Manchanda Ph.D. is psychotherapist and spiritual teacher who has been a student of the Buddhist, Yoga and Hindu Meditative Traditions for over 25 years. He has a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering. a Ph.D. in Computer Science and a Master’s in Counseling Psychology. His teaching methods are characterized by a confluence of various wisdom streams of the East and West resulting in an integral approach to spirituality that include all aspects of lived experience. Since 2000, he has also been using Neurofeedback and Brain Stimulation technologies to help people to reduce anxiety, improve mood and enter meditative states. Until recently, he facilitated an ongoing group in Tucson, called the Clear Sky Sangha.

David Hester, MA

Research Assistant

Background:

David Hester has a Ph.D., in Psychology with a focus in cognitive neuropsychology. His focus is to help people improve in every aspect of their life. As a licensed counsellor and coach, he assists clients in overcoming struggles with ADHD, stress, anxiety, and weight loss. His interests span brain-computer interface, high-end EEG wearables, and other neuro devices. David’s focus is to provide intervention to the health and science field through technology. He has experience with quantitative and qualitative research, professional coaching, foundational neuroscience, positive psychology, and Flow experiences.

Lindsay Briner, MA

Research Associate

Background:

Lindsay has a PhD in Psychology with a specialization in Behavioral Sciences at Sofia University. Her foundational background is in neurobiology, where she predominantly investigated the effects of transcendental meditation on the neuroendocrine stress response. Lindsay received a Master’s degree in theoretical transpersonal psychology with an independent specialization in Cosmology and Consciousness also at Sofia University.

Lindsay’s passion and research topic reside in the investigation of quantum coherence and vibrational modes of neural molecular structures that access the spacetime field of consciousness, and how consciousness is produced through the geometrical, self-organizing, information feedback systems of spacetime itself. Furthermore, the implications in how these universal properties fundamental to consciousness can be applied to enhance human potential, with transformative technology at the forefront of these investigations. She has been developing these concepts in her previous experience working as a Faculty Researcher at the Hawaii Institute for Unified Physics, as well as physicist Nassim Haramein’s Research Assistant at The Resonance Project Foundation.

From the quantum to the cosmological, Lindsay’s passion includes both individual and global evolution. She is a Transformational Coach and teacher, certified in several psychosomatic modalities and vibrational medicine approaches, working with clients since 2009. Lindsay continues to work as a Research Consultant for organizations in the emerging paradigm of physics and technology, working alongside scientists and engineers at the forefront of technological advancements for the betterment of humanity.

Elizabeth Stephens, PhD

Research Associate

Justin Riddle, PhD

Research Associate

Academic Credentials:

Research Associate

Background:

Justin Riddle is a graduate student at University of California, Berkeley studying cognitive neuroscience under the supervision of Professor Mark D’Esposito. The lab focuses on working memory and executive control in the prefrontal cortex. For Justin’s research he addresses the role of neural oscillations in voluntary and automatic cognition. He uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to view the brain during various eye movement paradigms of differing cognitive load. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is used to activate or depress specific regions of the brain. The induced changes of TMS are quantified via behavior or network wide adaptation during fMRI. Justin also has an interest in consciousness, particularly how the emerging fields of quantum biology and quantum computation will affect advances in neuroscience.

Josh E. Stroud

Research Associate

Forrest Bennett

Senior Research Scientist

Co-founder / CEO at Palo Alto Neuroscience

Winslow Strong, PhD

Research Scientist

Academic Credentials:

BA, MS, MS, PhD

Background:

Winslow is physicist and statistician who is interested in enhancing human health, performance, and happiness with the help of emerging technologies and a citizen-science approach of self-experimentation. He is a co-founder of Palo Alto Neuroscience and a graduate of Princeton and UCSB.

Richard Knowles, PhD

Post-Doc, Research Associate

Academic Credentials:

BA, PhD

Background:

Richard is a post-doctoral researcher from Sofia University who is interested in consciousness studies, transpersonal psychology, and the human potential. He is co-founder and research director of the Embodied Consciousness Research Group which has been exploring certain anomalous effects of consciousness on physical systems and vice versa since 2013. His dissertation project explored a means of using electromagnetic stimulation technology to influence brainwaves and consciousness. He also has over 7 years of experience in mental health work, and has recently completed post-doctoral clinical work as a psychotherapist at the Community Center for Health and Wellness.

Karambir Singh Khalsa, MA

PhD Student, Research Assistant

Karambir joins the Trans Tech Lab after having transferred to Sofia University as a third year student in the Doctor of Clinical Psychology (PsyD) program. Prior to transferring to Sofia, Karambir studied two years in the Master of Clinical Mental Health Program at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.

Karambir holds a BA in Music from the University of California at Los Angeles (1986) and a MA in Transpersonal Psychology from Sofia University (2015). His professional accomplishments include working for more than fifteen years in Information Technology (1995-2010) and he brings his skills and experience as a database developer to the TransTech Lab. Karambir studied for six years at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing in Europe earning diplomas in Professional Studies (hands-on healing, 2009) and Advanced Studies (somatic counseling, 2011). He also studied sound healing at the Peter Hess Akademie in Switzerland (2009) and is an authorized trainer of Peter Hess Sound Massage through the Peter Hess Institut in Germany (2013). Karambir is also a Level I Certified Instructor of Kundalini Yoga through the Kundalini Research Institute (2011).

Both his Peter Hess and Kundalini Yoga trainings educated him in the use of the gong as a meditation tool, a skill which he later expanded through training from grand gongmaster Don Conreaux. Karambir’s experience facilitating approximately 300 public gong meditation events since 2012 has cultivated his curiosity as to the possible use of this modality as an adjunct treatment for individuals diagnosed with anxiety. This has evolved into the hypothesis which he will test in his dissertation research to be conducted at the Trans Tech Lab under the mentorship of Dr. Jeffrey A. Martin.

Karambir has presented at the International Transpersonal Conference in Prague, Czech Republic (September, 2017; “Why Transpersonal Research Matters”), the 2nd International Conference on Spirituality and Psychology in Bangkok, Thailand (March, 2017; “Mindfulness and Gong Bath: More Than The Sum of its Parts”) and the 1st International Conference on the Humanities and Transpersonal Psychology in Bali, Indonesia (July, 2015; “How Sound Soothes the Savage Beast: Sound as a Transpersonal Healing Modality”).

Watson Xi, PhD

Principal Investigator, Associate Director for Neural Computation and Analysis

Background:

Watson works as a Senior Data Scientist studying ways we can find patterns in physiological and health data in order to improve our state of well-being. During his doctorate, he studied brains through the lens of mathematics, exploring how neurons interact to generate interesting and important activity. Previously he was a scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, writing code to find patterns in data. His focus now is on how to use technology to give us access to our own patterns of mental, physical and emotional state. Watson is a meditator of over twenty years, practicing in several different disciplines — in the last ten exploring the tradition of Vipassana most closely. He lives in Berkeley, CA.

Sharon Niv, PhD

Associate Research Scientist

Background:

Sharon Niv earned her Ph.D. in Brain Cognitive Science at the University of Southern California. Her focus involved using childhood EEG patterns to predict adolescent mood and behavior, and therapeutic neurofeedback. Sharon studies developments in neuroscience technology, and consciousness states in pursuit of well-being. Some interests include meditative approaches, flow, neurofeedback, psychoactive substances, and hypnosis, and effects of such states on regulatory network activity. In addition to scholarly pursuits, Sharon is also interested in applying game principles to enhancing mood and positive experiences in players. In her free time, she enjoys yoga, reading, and good wine.