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Biography

Dr. Haist received his B.A. in Psychology from UCLA and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (Neuropsychology specialization) from the UCSD/SDSU Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. He completed hi his pre-doctoral internship at the University of Florida and a McDonnell-Pew postdoctoral fellowship in Cognitive Neuroscience with Dr. Marta Kutas at UCSD. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UCSD and an affiliated faculty member of the UC San Diego Center for Human Development. Dr. Haist is the head of the Developmental Neuroimaging Laboratory located in the Center for Human Development and member of the Steering Committee for the UCSD Center for Functional MRI and Executive Committee of the Center for Human Development.

Research Interests

Dr. Haist’s research focuses on developmental cognitive neuroscience specifically characterizing development for face processing, social development, and identifying brain correlates of academic achievement for mathematics from early school age through adulthood. He studies cognitive development in typically developing healthy children and children that were born premature. His research primarily uses functional neuroimaging including functional MRI, EEG, and structural imaging. Dr. Haist is actively involved in FMRI methods and tool development for data processing and functional connectivity analysis.

Clinical Focus

Dr. Haist regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate courses covering neurological development, cognitive neuroscience, and FMRI design and analysis. Dr. Haist and his colleagues in the Center for Functional MRI developed a yearlong course on FMRI foundations, design, and advanced topics that serves as the main FMRI course at UCSD. He supervises undergraduates, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows in their independent research projects. His clinical interests are to define factors in typical and atypical face and social development and academic achievement in math that may serve as guides to future effective intervention strategies.