Megan Hall Email & Phone Number

Boys Town, Nebraska, United States

- Preprocessed and coregistered MEG and MRI data using BESA Research, BESA MRI, and MATLAB- Created spectrograms using MATLAB- Completed t-tests and correlations for behavioral and neural data through MATLAB tools such as NII Wizard and Neuroelf in addition to R- Ran moderation analyses, linear mixed effects models, exploratory factor analyses, and virtual sensor analyses on neuroimaging data- Wrote MATLAB scripts to aid in subtraction and averaging of GIFTI files for use in Brainstorm- Preprocessed T1 and T2 MRIs in Freesurfer, including quality checking images- Aided in tabling and teaching at various outreach events in the broader community to help inform and engage with the public about neuroscience and to recruit more diverse participants- Shadowed 5 full neuropsychological assessments lasting 1.5 hours each as well as a neuropsychological assessment led by a clinical neuropsychologist- Conducted and scored 14 full neuropsychological assessments for a total of 21.5 hours, including the WRAT4 – Word Reading, Logical Memory, BVMT, Stroop, Digit Span, COWAT FAS and Animals, and Boston Naming Test- Conducted 5 full consents during which participants were guided through the process of joining an ongoing study- Interacted with MCI/AD patients and substance users (methamphetamine and/or cannabis) as part of research studies

United States

Dr. Jensen’s lab in Neurogenomics is focused on the characterization of RNA-seq across different biofluids, extracellular vesicles, and determining potential biomarkers for neurological disease using RNA in accessible biofluids- Helped to improve and maintain a bioinformatics pipeline through the addition of deeptools, updating directory names, and adding exit commands if a file that is required for the next step in the pipeline is not created or has zero bytes- Analyzed long and smallRNA in various biofluids, such as plasma, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid, and in tissue samples from patients diagnosed with neurological diseases, including schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease in the format of heatmaps, stacked barplots, volcano plots, upset plots, waterfall graphs, PCA plots, and many other graphs- Ran analyses for the purpose of quality control and to help characterize the transcriptome of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and healthy controls- Compiled metadata from cognitive assessments for a dataset that includes patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and healthy controls- Gave a formal presentation for current Helios Scholars at TGen about my research to help them with their future presentations and science communication

Phoenix, Arizona, United States

- Created heatmaps of transposable elements compared to genes in RNA for a presentation- Coded the force of hits on football players’ helmets for a collaborators’ dataset- Utilized UpSetR to create upset plots of transposable elements across different kits used to test water controls- Uploaded data from healthy tissue samples to an open-source repository for exRNA to increase access to biological sample information for researchers- Helped integrate two existing pipelines that use Jinja2 and slurm via jetstream to facilitate data processing and analysis- Made heatmaps using z-scores using ComplexHeatmap to better illustrate findings from DESeq2 in both small RNA and bulk RNA

Phoenix, Arizona, United States

- Utilized existing GitHub repositories to create a pipeline that would run via jetstream with Jinja2 templates- Used shell-scripting in BASH to navigate between computer nodes and submit jobs via slurm- Conducted data analysis, mainly DESeq2, in R/RStudio to complete biostatistical analyses of transposable elements- Utilized pheatmap, EnhancedVolcano, ggplot, and others to create graphs of transposable elements in R/RStudio- Spoke to a group about current research on the project including the role of transposable elements, the research found on transposable elements in cerebrospinal fluid and Parkinson’s disease, and future directions- Created and presented a poster and abstract summarizing the project’s background, results, and goals- Upon nomination by the Neurogenomics Division, was given the opportunity to present research in an oral presentation at the final symposium

Memory And Attention Control Lab

-Helped with pupillometry data collection for value-based memory and learning-Read participants’ instructions for tasks and ensured they understood the task-Set up the computers for each participant with preprogrammed tasks that used PsychoPy and/or Gazepoint-Provided participants with credit for their participation on SONA systems

Culture And Decision Science Lab

This lab, headed by Dr. Virginia S.Y. Kwan, researches personality characteristics and interventions, cyberpsychology, and characteristics of personality applied to the temporal self; one of their major projects is the “Me in 10” project, a longitudinal study of Arizona State University students who began as freshmen in 2016; the study is gathering data on how youth view their future and how this impacts them- Coded qualitative statements written by students to themselves in ten years, specifically on how vivid their depiction of their future is, resulting in further progress in research for a graduate student’s project- Utilized SPSS Statistics for correlation tables, moderation analyses, and ANOVA- Completed an independent project including statistical analysis, a written abstract, and a poster, that was presented online at the SPSP 2021 conference- Completed an undergraduate thesis project presented in written and oral format

Evolution, Ecology, And Social Behavior Lab

Research in this lab, led by Dr. Steven Neuberg and Dr. Douglas Kenrick, uses social psychology from an evolutionary viewpoint. Hypotheses are drawn from anthropological data in the historical record. Stereotypes and prejudices are studied as a form of adaptation to threat, as one example- Interviewed participants over Zoom and in-person, resulting in further data collection for studies on threat perception and perceived diversity- Conducted literature reviews and learned to articulate what was stated in evolutionary science journals

Culture Of Context And Positive Development Lab

This lab uses developmental and biological perspectives to understand how Indigenous youth use cultural practices as a method of blocking stress, and how these factors play a role in executive function development-Read research papers on executive function development, specifically pertaining to Indigenous adolescents-Graded executive function tests, such as the BRIEF, happy/sad, etc. and input scores to SPSS-Compiled qualitative information from interviews for a presentation to the Indigenous community

Created 20+ training tutorialsUsed HubSpot to track leadsPublished 5+ short blog articlesPromoted the company on Instagram and LinkedIn using Hootsuite

Reach Institute

This lab broadly studies Mexican-American youth. I worked on a project funded by the NIH, more specifically on a longitudinal intervention-based study meant to find out how to help Mexican-American youth by looking at familial and genetic influences-Interviewed youth and adults in-person and over the phone, increasing the amount of mass data collection-Completed various office tasks, such as organization of folders and data, resulting in a more thorough collection of data

Disability Advocacy And Awareness Committee

- Organized documents in a Google Drive, resulting in better organization of the committee’s resources- Created a Google Form to ask about disability stigma, resulting in more awareness of issues on-campus- Acted as a go-between for Undergraduate Student Government, resulting in further advocacy of the Disability Resource Center’s programs for students with disabilities