Najva Akbari

Najva Akbari is an optical scientist investigating how the brain initiates complex social behaviors using novel microscopy approaches. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Lauren O'Connell’s lab, she is identifying the neural mechanism of olfactory caregiver recognition in neonatal vertebrate brains using multiphoton microscopy in social poison frog tadpoles.

Najva received her BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from UCLA. She completed her PhD in Applied and Engineering Physics with Dr. Chris Xu at Cornell University. Her doctoral work focused on characterization of three-photon microscopy and applications of multiphoton microscopy to imaging small aquatic vertebrate brains such as adult zebrafish and Danionella.