Our Team

Micah is a biracial non-binary postdoctoral research scientist and geriatric neuropsychology fellow at the Butler Columbia Aging Center. Micah holds expertise in the study of the brain and behavior with specialization in age-associated processes of neurobehavioral decline (e.g., dementia), health disparities, and HIV. 

Micah completed their MS in clinical research and a PhD in clinical psychology with a specialization in quantitative statistics, major area of study in clinical neuropsychology, and clinical internship in geropsychology. Historically, Micah’s work has focused on the social and clinical mechanisms of brain health disparities in HIV and aging, with a focus on social determinants of neurobehavioral decline and the integration of relevant frameworks for minoritized ethnoracial, sexual, and gender identities. This included the co-founding of an international research collaboration for Indigenous health disparities, Wisdom Workgroup for Indigenous Neuropsychology Global Strategies. Micah expanded upon this collaboration for their dissertation and found that American Indian and Alaskan Native participants exhibited faster trajectories of cognitive aging, a disparity that was amplified by immunosenescence in those with HIV. 

Micah’s overarching ambition as a clinical-scientist are two-fold: 1) to equitably identify modifiable social and molecular mechanisms of neurobehavioral decline, and 2) to disseminate culturally tailored interventions for biological aging across at-risk populations.

Alex is is a candidate for the Master of Public Health in Biostatistics at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. He specializes in data processing and analysis and uses statistical software programs like R and SAS to create actionable insights in the realm of public health. He is interested in non-communicable diseases, aging, and HIV. He aims to use his statistical skills to improve the health outcomes in immigrant and LGBTQ communities.

Alex currently works with Dr. Belsky in the Framingham Heart Study research to create a pace of aging measure and to identify potentially at-risk patients.

Heming is a Master student in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. He is currently working with Dr. Belsky to quantify the biological aging process and identify related risk factors and adverse health outcomes.

He earned his Master's degree in Demography from Peking University in 2023, where he focused on the dynamics of the aging process and its determinants, such as the longitudinal transition of weight status and the trajectory of functional disability. Heming is interested in translating methods into packages and data visualization.

Harry earned his M.S. in Biostatistics from Columbia Mailman School of Public Health in 2024. He joined Dr. Belsky's Lab in the summer of 2023, working closely with Dr. Belsky, Dr. Ryan, and Dr. Savin on various projects including predicting ICU patients’ mortality outcomes by quantifying their biological age and studying cognitive decline with DunedinPACE. Post-graduation, Harry has taken up a position as a Biostatistician at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Chris is a PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology and pre-doctoral fellow in the Psychiatric Epidemiology Training Program. He is particularly interested in understanding psychosocial determinants of health, with a focus on exploring the causes and consequences of loneliness. Most recently, he has studied how loneliness and social isolation are related to healthspan and lifespan in American older adults (preprint on MedRxiv). In addition to his research efforts, he has also enjoyed working as a lead teaching assistant for (Y)our Longer Life, a course on the public health challenges and opportunities that come with aging societies, and Research Methods & Applications: Quantitative Foundations, a course on quantitative methods in epidemiology and biostatistics.

Dayoon is a PhD student in Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She is interested in integrating multi-omics data to understand how environmental and lifestyle factors affect our long-term health, potentially delaying disease onset and extending healthy lifespan.

She obtained her MPH in Epidemiology from NYU and worked with Dr. Belsky on quantifying biological aging using DNA methylation and blood-chemistry data. Currently, she is working with Dr. Ritz on projects examining the impact of air pollution and diet on Parkinson's disease using microbiome and metabolome data.

Dayoon's Google Scholar page and follow her on Twitter.

Dr. Laurel Raffington is a German-American developmental psychologist. She leads the Max Planck Research Group Biosocial at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Their research examines how social inequality affects child and adolescent development at multiple biological and psychological levels that may later lead to social disparities in adults' educational attainment and health. Recent projects have explored whether epigenetic algorithms can be used to study this "long arm of childhood". Dr. Raffington received her Ph.D. in psychology from the Berlin School of Mind and Brain at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in Germany whilst working at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, where she later continued as a postdoctoral researcher. Her dissertation was awarded with the Otto-Hahn-Medal by the Max Planck Society and the Margret-and-Paul-Baltes Prize by the German Psychological Society. She completed postdoctoral training with Prof. Kathryn Paige Harden and Prof. Elliot Tucker-Drob at the University of Texas at Austin, Department of Psychology and Population Research Center. Connect with Dr. Raffington on Twitter and LinkedIn. Follow Dr. Raffington’s publications and other works on Research Gate and on her Website.

Dr. Waylon J. Hastings is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition at Texas A&M University. He earned undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry, Genetics, and Mathematics from Texas A&M University (2013) and a dual-title PhD in Biobehavioral Health and Bioethics from Pennsylvania State University (2020). Collaborating with the Telomere Research Network, CALERIE™ Clinical Trial, and COnsortium of METabolomics Studies (COMETS), he works to develop, improve, and validate methods to measure ‘biological age’ and functional decline in humans. He also researches how stress and metabolism impact the ability of these measures to answer questions about mechanisms of aging. His work has been highlighted by Science Daily, the American Council for Science and Health, and the New York Post.  Dr. Hastings’ mission is to develop efficient methods to measure individual differences in aging. In doing so, he aims to improve the effectiveness of interventions aimed at increasing healthspan. Connect with Waylon on X (formerly Twitter; @whastings2012). Follow Waylon’s publications and ongoing work on GoogleScholar and ResearchGate.