Dr. Karen C. Barrett is an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment at the Institute for Health & Aging at the UCSF School of Nursing and the Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery at the School of Medicine. She completed her B.A. studies in Music and Neuroscience at the Music and Neuroscience in 2006; and M.Mus. studies in Piano and Musicology at Peabody Institute of Music at Johns Hopkins University in 2008 and 2009, respectively; and Ph.D. studies in Music Cognition at Northwestern University in March 2015. Her research interests include music and neural plasticity, cochlear implants, neuroscience of creativity and improvisation, data science, musical talent, data analysis, music and health, and music and aging.
Dr. Nicole T. Jiam is an Assistant Professor in Otolaryngology at the Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She completed her BA studies in Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University in 2011 and her MD studies in Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, in 2017. She completed her Otolaryngology residency at UCSF and her fellowship in Skull Base Surgery at Harvard Medical School. Among her numerous accolades, she was awarded the Catalyst Award from UCSF in 2021, the Best Translational Research Award from UCSF Sooy Resident Research Symposium in 2021, the Physician Scientist Fellowship Award from Doris Duke Foundation in 2023, and the Award of Excellence in Teaching from Harvard Medical School & Mass Eye and Ear in 2024. Her research interests include cochlear implantation, music perception, flat-panel CT imaging, complex sound processing, place-pitch mapping, precision-based medicine, personalized programming, entrepreneurship, digital health, medical informatics, and innovation.
