After earning his B.A. in Physics from UC Berkeley, Skyler Jackman performed nuclear physics research at the Lawrence Berkeley Labs' 88" Cyclotron. He loved Berkeley so much he stayed for his PhD, before heading east for a postdoc at Harvard Medical School. Skyler joined the Vollum Institute as an assistant scientist in 2017, and also holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience. When he’s not untangling the mysteries of the brain, you can find Skyler exploring the Oregon outdoors using sports equipment that ranges from kayaks to rollerblades.

Aaliya is originally from Leh-Ladakh, often called the “Land of High Passes,” a high-altitude region in the Himalayas of the Indian subcontinent. She is currently a senior at Lewis & Clark College majoring in Biology. She joined the lab in the summer of 2025 as an undergraduate researcher studying the role of SYT7-driven facilitation in cognitive function and short-term memory. In addition to her research, she collaborated with Chloe on a startup focused on developing affordable EEG-integrated VR headsets designed to help young children build self-regulation skills through brain-powered games. Outside of the lab and classroom, Aaliya enjoys hiking in the mountains, trail running, reading and writing in her journal. Fun fact: She spent 4 months in New Zealand as part of her study abroad and flew twice to the top of two different glaciers in a helicopter!

Chloé earned her B.A. in Biological Sciences at Cornell University and is currently a Ph.D. student in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience at OHSU. Her interdisciplinary research on cognitive flexibility is supported by a fellowship from the NIH, and she is the founder of a startup building affordable EEG-integrated VR headsets to help children build self-regulation skills through brain-powered games. When away from the computer, she unwinds with digital illustration, hiking and backpacking, horror movies, video games, and playing violin.

Pablo is a rising senior at Sunset High School, and spent a semester working in OHSU's PSI program for passionate high schoolers interested in biomedical research. Here, he acquired his passion for neuroscience, and learned about synaptic plasticity through his work. He is now assisting in the lab in order to gain practical skills and to learn more about the field. In school, he likes to participate in MUN, track and field, and marching band, and likes to play trumpet and piano, hike, draw, and play video games with his friends to relax.

Yui received her M.D. from Kyoto University, Japan, where she studied the molecular mechanisms underlying long-term potentiation and memory formation. She joined the Jackman lab in 2025 as a PhD student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program. She will investigate the synaptic and circuit mechanisms that enable flexible, context-dependent auditory processing. Outside the lab, she enjoys tennis, traveling, hiking, cycling, and skiing.

Dennis earned his master’s degree in biophysics at the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. With support from an Erasmus Mundus fellowship and DFG funding, he completed his Ph.D. in Biology/Neuroscience studying synaptic short-term plasticity in the auditory brainstem with Eckhard Friauf in Kaiserslautern and Henrique von Gersdorff at OHSU in Portland, Oregon. Now, as a postdoctoral fellow in the Jackman lab, he studies the molecular mechanisms that shape presynaptic plasticity. In 2024, Dennis was selected as a Grass Fellow, where he expanded his work to presynaptic mechanisms underlying motor control in the lamprey spinal cord.

Outside the lab, Dennis is a longtime Red Cross member, a certified fitness instructor, and spends most of his free time with his three dogs or playing video games.