Lab Director
Yang Qu is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Social Policy in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. He received PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and completed postdoctoral training from Stanford University. Yang takes an interdisciplinary approach that combines developmental psychology, cultural psychology, and neuroscience to examine how sociocultural contexts shape adolescent development. He studies adolescents from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds using a variety of methodological approaches, including longitudinal and experimental designs along with survey, observational, and biological (e.g., neuroimaging with fMRI) assessments.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Beiming Yang is a postdoctoral fellow of Human Development and Social Policy at Northwestern University. He earned his PhD in Human Development and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Before that, he received his B.A. and M.S. degrees in Economics from the University of Illinois. His research sits at the intersection of family science, education science, and developmental neuroscience. He is interested in how family contexts, cultural environments, and the developing brain jointly shape adolescents’ psychological, social, and academic development. Methodologically, his research combines survey with neuroimaging to examine the longitudinal changes in adolescent adjustment with a developmental lens and explore these processes at both between- and within-person levels.
Graduate Students
Varun Devakonda is a sixth-year PhD student in the Human Development and Social Policy program. He received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his M.S. in Education from Johns Hopkins University. His research interests are centered around topics related to educational neuroscience; more specifically, exploring how neuroscience can be applied within academic contexts to improve instructional practices, school policies, and educational outcomes within underserved communities. Fun fact: I taught middle-school math for two years and was involved in a music program called Guitars Over Guns.
Di Hu is a second-year PhD student in the Human Development and Social Policy program at Northwestern University. She received a Master of Social Work degree from New York University. Di’s research examines how cultural and social factors influence adolescent development, focusing on academic motivation, emotional well-being, and the challenges adolescents face in navigating these influences. She is particularly interested in intervention strategies to promote positive developmental outcomes. Additionally, Di is exploring the potential of emerging technologies, such as large language models (LLMs), to support adolescent mental health through culturally sensitive approaches.
Zichun Zhang is currently a first-year Ph.D. student in the Human Development and Social Policy program. She received her B.A. in Public Policy from New York University and her Master of Public Health from Yale University. Her research focuses on adolescent mental health, with a particular interest in how school-based programs can be designed and implemented to prevent depression and support long-term well-being among youth. Through her work, she aims to bridge research and practice by informing interventions and policies that address disparities in mental health care and promote healthier developmental outcomes for adolescents.
Lab Alumni
Tianying Cai was a postdoctoral fellow in the Culture, Brain, and Human Development Lab from 2023-2024. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Auburn University. Her main research interest is to investigate sociocultural factors that influence children and adolescent’s health and psychological wellbeing using a biopsychosocial approach. The first line of her research examines the antecedents and consequences of parenting behaviors. The second line of research focuses on understanding the interplay between individual and family factors for children’s adjustment. The third line of research aims to elucidate the social and familial processes of children’s sleep.
Zeyi Shi was a postdoctoral fellow in the Culture, Brain, and Human Development Lab from 2023-2024. She is currently an Associate Professor at East China Normal University. Her research takes a multidisciplinary approach and is motivated by three major questions: 1) What interpersonal and sociocultural factors could enhance youth’s psychological functioning? 2) What are the contributing factors to parenting and momentary parent-child interactions? 3) How could interventions and education programs promote optimal parenting and positive youth development?
Lamia Abbas was a Project Coordinator and Lab Manager for the Culture, Brain, and Human Development Lab from 2021-2022. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2019 with A B.S. in Psychobiology with a Specialization in Computing. Lamia is interested in researching how social and environmental factors can affect developmental trajectory and decision-making behavior through adolescence.
Current Research Assistants
Mandy Bu
Phoebe Lee
Angela Zhong
Hemu Zhang
Ruiwen Zhao
Jiayi Wang
Sophia Barandiaran
Jonathan Yi
Abdullah Bin Masood
Olga Vaskova
Past Research Assistants
Anor Chen
Shiqi Xiao
Emily Kelleher
Kristen Lee
Elijah Huang
Anna Alava
Maria Herrera
Caroline Kruk
Kate Rooney
Feiyu (Sally) Wang
Jiayi (Kayla) Tan
Lily Kellams
Ziyue Meng
Kathyayini Mendu