About

I study how humans learn, and build end-to-end experimental systems to measure and improve learning, reasoning, and interaction in AI-driven environments.

Research

I completed my PhD in Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in February 2026, earning Distinction in Research and the Doctoral Prize for Outstanding Research in Neuroscience. My work combines computational modeling with intracranial human electrophysiology to understand how humans learn, attend, and make decisions in complex environments, and how these computations are implemented in the brain. I was co-supervised by Dr. Angela Radulescu and Dr. Ignacio Saez.

Industry & Applied AI

I am currently a Research Scientist Intern at Meta Reality Labs, where I design and run human-subject experiments to study learning, adaptation, and control in next-generation neuromotor interfaces. My work focuses on developing behavioral and signal-based metrics, as well as evaluation pipelines, to quantify skill acquisition and user capability in real-time, closed-loop human–machine interaction.

In parallel, as a Model Validation Expert Fellow at Handshake, I evaluate frontier AI systems by building structured frameworks to assess reasoning quality, identify failure modes, and improve the reliability and safety of large language models. Across these efforts, I focus on translating insights from human cognition into scalable methods for evaluating and improving intelligent systems.

Open-Source Software

I am a lead developer of NeuroCluster, a Python package for statistical analysis of neural time series. I am interested in building scalable, reproducible tools for high-resolution data analysis in cognitive and systems neuroscience.

Science Communication & Outreach

I am committed to science communication and education. I have taught neuroscience through Mount Sinai’s Center for Excellence in Youth Education and served as Co-President of Mentoring in Neuroscience Discovery, Mount Sinai’s largest student-run outreach organization.

Training

  • PhD in Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (Distinction in Research; Doctoral Prize for Outstanding Research in Neuroscience)
  • MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, supervised by Professor Tali Sharot
  • BS in Psychology (Behavioral Neuroscience & Health Studies), Fairfield University

Contact

I am happy to discuss research, collaboration, or opportunities. Email me at christina.maher@icahn.mssm.edu, or connect via GitHub, LinkedIn, Google Scholar, or Bluesky.

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