معرفی
Dr. Divya Sitaraman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at California State University, East Bay (CSUEB). She holds a B.S. from the University of Delhi (2001), M.S. from the Indian Institute of Technology (2003), and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri (2010). Before joining CSUEB in 2019, she held roles as an Associate Research Scientist and Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University and Janelia Research Campus at HHMI (2010–2014), followed by an Assistant Professorship at the University of San Diego (2014–2019).
Her research focuses on neuronal circuits regulating sleep, arousal, and their impacts on learning and decision-making in invertebrate and vertebrate models. The Sitaraman Lab investigates how sleep-wake cycles interact with behavioral outputs, leveraging Drosophila melanogaster as a primary model. Key techniques include genetic drivers, neural stimulation, and activity monitoring. Recent work includes an NSF CAREER Award for interdisciplinary research and education in sleep neuroscience.
Dr. Sitaraman teaches courses in Physiological Psychology, Behavioral Neuroscience, and Experimental Psychology. Her articles explore genetic, cellular, and circuit-level mechanisms of sleep regulation, with a focus on octopamine, dopamine, and GABA signaling pathways. She emphasizes comparative models in biomedical research to bridge translational gaps.
Grants and awards include the NSF CAREER Award (2021). Her lab’s future directions involve expanding investigations into sleep’s role in decision-making and refining methodologies for studying neural circuits in awake, behaving animals.
