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The HAPPY Lab

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The HAPPY Lab
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Emma Childs PhD

  • Associate Professor of Psychiatry
  • Department of Psychiatry
  • University of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Emma Childs is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, and Director of The Human Addiction Psychopharmacology laboratory. Dr Childs’ research is dedicated to improving our understanding of addictive disorders. One of her primary areas of interest is studying how powerful associations are formed between abused drugs and cues (i.e., the people, places and paraphernalia) surrounding drug use.

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Emma Childs

Sissi Huang MA

  • Research Associate
Sissi received her M.A. in Psychology from the University of Chicago in Spring 2021, where her thesis focuses on age-dependent subjective effect after acute THC use. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020 with a major in Psychology and a minor in Neuroscience. Her research interests lie in the differential susceptibility of substances in different population and implications in their therapeutic potentials.

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Sissi Huang

Halla Kerdjoudj

  • Student Researcher

Halla is a third year student at UIC studying neuroscience and on the pre-health track hoping to pursue a career in healthcare.

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Halla Kerdjoudj

Armanjot Lakhen

  • Undergraduate Research Assistant

Armanjot Lakhen is an undergraduate UIC student volunteering under Dr. Emma Childs. He is majoring in Biological Sciences. He is looking to gain more experience within the psychiatric research field and is interested in learning more about addiction and human behavior regarding substance abuse. Understanding the genetic, personality, and environmental factors is key to the research.

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Armanjot Lakhen

Drey Maton

  • Undergraduate Research Assistant

Drey Maton is a sophomore Neuroscience student at UIC. He is a student athlete pursuing a career in medicine.

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Drey Maton

Fatema Nomani

  • Undergraduate Research Assistant

Fatema Nomani is a 2nd year undergraduate student at UIC studying IHS/Psychology. She is hoping to pursue a career in medicine in the near future.

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Fatema Nomani

Nam Nguyen

  • Undergraduate Research Assistant
Nam Nguyen is a senior Neuroscience student at UIC. He is hoping to pursue a career in medicine.

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Nam Nguyen

Giancarlo Sarasti

  • Undergraduate Research Assistant
Giancarlo Sarasti

Marta Maria Ramos Soares Ribeiro MSc

  • Psychiatry Volunteer
  • Clinical Research Coordinator in training
Marta Maria Ramos Soares Ribeiro work as a Research Collaborator/Specialist/Clinical Research Coordinator at the department of pathology, UIC. Where she manages a couple of labs, do wet lab bench work, train personnel and collect & consent samples for Clinical studies. Now, Marta volunteers at the Happy lab with Dr. Childs, to better improve her skills of becoming a better Clinical Research Coordinator in a near future.

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Marta Ribeiro

Mark Rinaolo

  • Student Volunteer
Mark is a first-year medical student currently interested in psychiatry and psychiatric research. He graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Neuroscience and is currently enrolled in UIC College of Medicine.

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Mark Rinaolo

Megan Sia

  • Student Research Volunteer

Megan Sia is a high school student at the Illinois Math and Science Academy. She is currently conducting an independent research at the HAPPY lab in UIC under her school’s SIR (Student Inquiry and Research) program.

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Megan Sia

Nida Ullah

  • Undergraduate Research Assistant

Nida Ullah is an undergraduate student at UIC, hoping to pursue a career in the medical field in order to serve underprivileged communities.

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Nida Ullah

Harriet de Wit PhD

  • Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience
  • University of Chicago

For more information, please visit Dr. Wit's profile page at the University of Chicago, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience.

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Harriet de Wit