Yasmine Bassil, PhD

Research Leadership & Execution

• Designed and led an independent research program investigating aging effects on spatial cognition. Recruited and managed 110+ participants, secured $260K in competitive funding (NSF GRFP, NIH T32), and culminated in a dissertation defense and 7 peer-reviewed publications.
• Directed 15+ member Navigation Team, establishing meeting cadences, tracking milestones, and overseeing independent sub-studies per team member.

Technical Infrastructure & Tools

• Established novel neuroimaging methodology (concurrent TMS-fMRI) as a shared institutional capability at Emory, expanding research access for the broader Atlanta scientific community.
• Built and open-sourced a city-scale VR environment in Unity (NavCity) and co-developed a custom neuroimaging pipeline (MR.Flow), replacing manual workflows with reproducible tools.
• Established lab-wide GitHub infrastructure (7 repositories) and standardized analysis pipelines (Python, R).
• Orchestrated AI agents & LLM workflows (Claude Code, Claude, Perplexity) across the full research lifecycle — data pipelines, MR.Flow development, figure generation, literature review, manuscript drafting — to standardize, automate, and reproduce complex multi-stage workflows.

• Served as primary liaison between 120+ PhD students and program leadership, leading a 22-member executive board across 12 positions and organizing 10+ annual program events.
• Rebuilt organizational infrastructure from the ground up: established the first internal documentation system, defined officer roles, formalized transition protocols, implemented meeting schedules, established recognition initiatives, and created budget infrastructure — all designed to outlast any single leadership team.

• Co-led a 17-member DEI committee across 3 subcommittees, serving as institutional liaison between students, faculty, and Laney Graduate School administration.
• Drove measurable program-level changes: conducted admissions review to identify and reduce bias, revised curriculum modules for neurological inclusivity, and partnered with Emory's DEI office to launch a new unconscious bias certificate training program adopted program-wide.

• Led 13-member interdisciplinary organizing committee across multiple Atlanta research institutions to plan 3-day computational neuroscience hackathon for 30+ accepted attendees.
• Secured $35,000 in sponsorships, created 3 neuroimaging project tracks, recruited 6 faculty speakers, and attracted 90+ applications from 9 academic and professional institutions, selecting 30 attendees.

• Supported institutional science communications at Georgia Tech's College of Sciences: wrote & edited articles, created graphics, produced photography & video content, managed social media & news outlets, and created multimedia coverage of research for 6 CoS schools and across campus — translating complex science into accessible public-facing narratives.

• Established full operational structure of 22-member undergraduate research organization, building committee structure across 4 functional areas (Events, Campus Relations, Outreach, Advertising).
• Grew program reach to 1,000+ students per semester through research fairs, workshops, panels, and office hours connecting undergraduates to research opportunities.