Junaid Salim Merchant | Curriculum Vitae

     

Education

2022 - Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS) | University of Maryland, College Park
Dissertation: “Brain Basis of Human Social Interaction: Neurocognitive Functions and Meta-Analysis” | Advisor: Elizabeth Redcay, Ph.D.
   - Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award
   - Computation and Mathematics for Biological Networks (COMBINE) Fellow

2010 - M.S. in Experimental Psychology | Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ
Thesis: “Self-construal and creative problem solving” | Advisor: Kelly Goedert, Ph.D.
   - Graduated with Highest Distinction
   - Behavioral Neuroscience Concentration

2006 - B.A. in Psychology and Studio Art | University of North Carolina, Asheville

Professional Experience

2025 - current | Lead Data Scientist | Pivot Path Solutions, LLC
Defense Health Agency / MTEC Contract; Fairfax, Virginia
Data science lead building a database from 200M+ civilian and military health records for epidemiological analysis of hearing loss. MTEC Award No. MTEC-24-01-MPAI-017 Project Manager: Chip Sampson

2022 - 2025 | Research Faculty: Data Science | Big Data for Health Equity
Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department, University of Maryland
Advanced multilevel modeler and machine learning researcher using new media data sources to examine health disparities in large-scale CDC, NIA, and NCHS datasets. Team Lead: Thu Nguyen

2018 - 2022 | Graduate Researcher | Developmental Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland
Pipeline development, fMRI methods trainer, and neuroimaging research/meta-analysis examining human social interaction. PI: Elizabeth Redcay

2016 - 2018 | Research Associate | Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab
Psychology Department, Georgetown University
Data analyst, programmer & coordinator for data-driven R01 investigation of executive function dimensions across pediatric psychiatric disorders. PI: Chandan Vaidya

2015 - 2016 | Project Coordinator | Oregon Eating Study
Center for Translational Neuroscience, University of Oregon
Coordinator, data analyst, and protocol development for longitudinal R01 examining neural and behavioral predictors of changes in eating behavior. PIs: Elliot Berkman, Nicole Giuliani

2010 - 2015 | Lab Manager/Data Analyst | SAN and DSN Labs
Psychology Department, University of Oregon
Data analyst, research coordinator, graduate teaching assistant and fMRI methods/pipeline development. Social & Affective Neuro and Developmental Social Neuro Labs. PIs: Elliot Berkman, Jennifer Pfeifer

2009 - 2010 | Clinical Research Assistant | Kessler Foundation Research Center, Stroke Lab
Neuropsychological and clinical assessment of stroke patients in the. PI: Anna Barrett

2008 - 2010 | Research/Teaching Assistant. | Seton Hall University
Experimental design, data collection/analysis, and statistics teacher in the Psychology Department.

2006 - 2008 | Research Assistant | University of North Carolina Charlotte
EEG data collection for Cognitive Control Lab and research assistant in the Pain Lab.

2004 - 2006 | Resident Trainer | Mountain Area Residential, Asheville NC
Resident trainer for adults with developmental disorders and TBI.

Awards

2nd Place: Computational Social & Affective Neuroscience Data Competition | 2022
Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award Top 2% of UMD Graduate Students | 2021-2022
Broadening Participation Grant: Open Science Training fMRI Workshop at UMD | 2022
Social & Affective Neuroscience Society: Diversity Award | 2021

Publications

  1. Nguyen, T. T., Merchant, J. S., Makres, K., Dennard, E., Criss, S., & Nguyen, Q. C. (2026). SOCIAL MEDIA AND MENTAL HEALTH. From Posts to Patterns: Using Social Media to Investigate Drivers of Population Health, 146.
  2. Xie, H., Moraczewski, D., McNaughton, K. A., Warnell, K. R., Merchant, J. S., Kirby, L. A., & Redcay, E. (2026). Functional Connectivity During Social Reward Processing in Autistic and Neurotypical Adolescents. Brain and Behavior, 16(5), e71378.
  3. Abdurokhmonova, G., Taylor-Robinette, E. K., McDorman, S. A., Ramirez, A. G., Merchant, J. S., Gabrieli, J. D., & Romeo, R. R. (2026). Parallel contributions of socioeconomic status and bilingual experiences on executive function and the brain in young children. Brain and language, 276, 105737.
  4. Drew, L. B., Merchant, J., Thoma, M. E., Mane, H., Yue, X., & Nguyen, T. T. (2026). The association between state-level negative racial sentiment and maternal hypertension in the US from 2016 to 2021: An observational study using Twitter data. PLoS One, 21(4), e0346564.
  5. Merchant, J. S., Purcell, J. J., Callow, D. D., Won, J., Kommula, Y., Rosenberg, S., … & Smith, J. C. (2025). The Functional Connectome Mediates Associations Between Fitness and Cognition Across the Adult Lifespan. Human Brain Mapping, 46(16), e70404.
  6. Merchant, J. S., Glaros, S., Edakoth, E., Harris, R., Tchangalova, N., & Redcay, E. (2025). Brain bases of real-time social interaction: A meta-analytic investigation of human neuroimaging studies. Aperture neuro, 5, 10-52294.
  7. Merchant, J. S., Nguyen, T. T., Makres, K., & Evans, C. R. (2025). Intersectional inequities in suicide ideation by race, sexual orientation, and gender among US high school students in the pre-and post-2020 waves of the YRBSS: an application of random effects intersectional MAIHDA. American Journal of Epidemiology, 194(9), 2540-2552.
  8. Nguyen, Q. C., Doumbia, R., Nguyen, T. T., Yue, X., Mane, H., Merchant, J., … & He, X. (2025). Changes in the Neighborhood Built Environment and Chronic Health Conditions in Washington, DC, in 2014-2019: Longitudinal Analysis. JMIR Formative Research, 9(1), e74195.
  9. Alibilli, A. S., Jain, V., Mane, H., Yue, X., Ratzki-Leewing, A., Merchant, J. S., … & Nguyen, T. T. (2025). Harnessing Facebook to investigate real-world mentions of adverse events of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) medications: observational study of Facebook posts from 2022 to 2024. JMIR infodemiology, 5, e73619.
  10. Nguyen, T. T., Yue, X., Mane, H., Seelman, K., … Merchant, J. S., … & Nguyen, Q. C. (2025). Decoding digital discourse through multimodal text and image machine learning models to classify sentiment and detect hate speech in race-and lesbian, Gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual community–related posts on social media: Quantitative study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 27, e72822.
  11. Criss, S., Nguyen, T. T., Gonzales, S. M., Lin, B., Kim, M., Makres, K., … Merchant, J. S., & Hswen, Y. (2024). “HIV Stigma Exists”—Exploring ChatGPT’s HIV Advice by Race and Ethnicity, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 1-14.
  12. Wei, H., Hswen, Y., Merchant, J. S., Drew, L. B., Nguyen, Q. C., Yue, X., … & Nguyen, T. T. (2024). From Tweets to Streets: Observational Study on the Association Between Twitter Sentiment and Anti-Asian Hate Crimes in New York City from 2019 to 2022. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 26, e53050.
  13. Nguyen, Q. C., Tasdizen, T., Alirezaei, M., Mane, H., Yue, X., Merchant, J. S., … & Nguyen, T. T. (2024). Neighborhood built environment, obesity, and diabetes: A Utah siblings study. SSM-Population Health, 26, 101670.
  14. De La Cruz, M. M., Criss, S., Kim, M., Thai, N., Makres, K., Merchant, J. S., & Nguyen, T. T. (2024). Not a Monolith. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 11(2), 58-80.
  15. Nguyen, T. T., Merchant, J. S., Yue, X., Mane, H., Wei, H., Huang, D., … & Nguyen, Q. C. (2024). A Decade of Tweets: Visualizing Racial Sentiments Towards Minoritized Groups in the United States Between 2011 and 2021. Epidemiology, 35(1), 51-59.
  16. Nguyen, T. T., Criss, S., Kim, M., De La Cruz, M. M., Thai, N., Merchant, J. S., … & Nguyen, Q. C. (2023). Racism during pregnancy and birthing: experiences from Asian and Pacific Islander, Black, Latina, and Middle Eastern women. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 10(6), 3007-3017.
  17. Nguyen, T. T., Merchant, J. S., Criss, S., Makres, K., Gowda, K. N., Mane, H., … & Allen, A. M. (2023). Examining Twitter-Derived Negative Racial Sentiment as Indicators of Cultural Racism: Observational Associations With Preterm Birth and Low Birth Weight Among a Multiracial Sample of Mothers, 2011-2021. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 25, e44990.
  18. Kaminski, A., Xie, H., You, X., Flaharty, K., Jeppsen, C., Li, S., Merchant, J. S., … & Vaidya, C. J. (2023). 354 Unitary neural correlates of executive control in pediatric transdiagnostic psychopathology. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 7(s1), 104-105.
  19. Nguyen, T. T., Yu, W., Merchant, J. S., Criss, S., Kennedy, C. J., Mane, H., … & Nguyen, Q. C. (2023). Examining exposure to messaging, content, and hate speech from partisan news social media posts on racial and ethnic health disparities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(4), 3230.
  20. McNaughton, K. A., Kirby, L. A., Warnell, K. R., Alkire, D., Merchant, J. S., Moraczewski, D., … & Redcay, E. (2023). Social-interactive reward elicits similar neural response in autism and typical development and predicts future social experiences. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 59, 101197.
  21. Kaminski, A., You, X., Flaharty, K., Jeppsen, C., Li, S., Merchant, J. S., … & Vaidya, C. J. (2023). Cingulate-Prefrontal Connectivity During Dynamic Cognitive Control Mediates Association Between p Factor and Adaptive Functioning in a Transdiagnostic Pediatric Sample. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 8(2), 189-199.
  22. Dziura, S. L., Hosangadi, A., Shariq, D., Merchant, J. S., & Redcay, E. (2023). Partner similarity and social cognitive traits predict social interaction success among strangers. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 18(1), nsad045.
  23. Nguyen, T. T., Criss, S., Kim, M., De La Cruz, M. M., Thai, N., Merchant, J. S., … & Nguyen, Q. C. (2022). Racism during pregnancy and birthing: experiences from Asian and Pacific Islander, Black, Latina, and Middle Eastern women. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 1-11.
  24. Merchant, J.S., Alkire, D., & Redcay, E. (2022). Neural Similarity between mentalizing and live social interaction during the transition to adolescence. Human Brain Mapping, 43(13), 4074–4090. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25903
  25. Dziura, S., Merchant, J. S., Alkire, D., Rashid, A., Shariq, D., Moraczewski, D., & Redcay, E. (2021). Effects of social and emotional context on neural activation and synchrony during movie viewing. Human brain mapping, 10.1002/hbm.25669.
  26. Cook, K. M., You, X., Cherry, J. B., Merchant, J. S., Skapek, M., Powers, M. D., … & Vaidya, C. J. (2021). Neural correlates of schema-dependent episodic memory and association with behavioral flexibility in autism spectrum disorders and typical development. Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders, 13(1), 1-16.
  27. Gau, R., Noble, S., Heuer, K., Bottenhorn, K., Bilgin, I. P., Yang, Y. F., … Merchant, J. S. .. & Zuo, X. N. (2021). Brainhack: developing a culture of open, inclusive, community-driven neuroscience. Neuron, 109(11), 1769-1775.
  28. Merchant, J. S., Cosme, D., Giuliani, N. R., Dirks, B., & Berkman, E. T. (2020). Neural Substrates of Food Valuation and Its Relationship With BMI and Healthy Eating in Higher BMI Individuals. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 14, 578676.
  29. Giuliani, N. R., Cosme, D., Merchant, J. S., Dirks, B., & Berkman, E. T. (2020). Brain activity associated with regulating food cravings predicts changes in self-reported food craving and consumption over time. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 14.
  30. Loewenstern, J., You, X., Merchant, J., Gordon, E. M., Stollstorff, M., Devaney, J., & Vaidya, C. J. (2019). Interactive effect of 5-HTTLPR and BDNF polymorphisms on amygdala intrinsic functional connectivity and anxiety. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 285, 1-8.
  31. Giuliani, N. R., Merchant, J. S., Cosme, D. & Berkman, E. T. (2018) Neural predictors of dietary change. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1428(1): 208-220.
  32. Pfeifer, J. H., Mahy, C., Merchant, J. S., Chen, C., Masten, C. L., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., Lessard, J., Dong, Q., & Chen, C. (2017). Neural systems for reflected and direct self-appraisals in Chinese young adults: Exploring the role of the temporal-parietal junction..Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology,.23(1), 45.
  33. Jankowski, K. F., Moore, W. E. III, Merchant, J. S., Kahn, L. E., & Pfeifer, J. H. (2014). But do you think I’m cool? Developmental differences in striatal recruitment during direct and reflected social self-evaluations. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 8, 40-54.
  34. Berkman, E.T., Kahn, L.E., & Merchant, J.S. (2014). Training-induced changes in inhibitory control network activity. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(1), 149-157.
  35. Moore, W. E. III, Merchant, J. S., Kahn, L. E., & Pfeifer, J. H. (2014). ‘Like me?’: Ventromedial prefrontal cortex is sensitive to both personal relevance and self-similarity during social comparisons. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9, 421-426.
  36. Pfeifer, J. H., Kahn, L. E., Merchant, J. S., Peake, S. A., Veroude, K., Masten, C. L., Lieberman, M. D., Mazziotta, J. C., & Dapretto, M. (2013). Longitudinal change in the neural bases of adolescent social self-evaluations: Effects of age and pubertal development. Journal of Neuroscience, 24, 7415-7419.
  37. Pfeifer, J. H., Merchant, J. S., Colich, N., Hernandez, L., Rudie, J., & Dapretto, M. (2013). Neural and behavioral responses during self-evaluative processes differ in youth with and without autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2, 272-285.
  38. Gordon, N.S., Merchant, J.S., Zanbaka, C., Hodges, L.F., & Goolkasian, P. (2011). Interactive gaming reduces experimental pain with or without a head mounted display. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 2123-2128.
  39. Zeidan, F., Gordon, N.S., Merchant, J.S., & Goolkasian, P. (2009). The effects of brief mindfulness meditation training on experimentally induced pain. Journal of Pain, 11, 199-209.

Talks, Workshops, and Teaching Experience

Service

Technical and Analytical Skills

Select Conference Presentations

References

Chip Sampson | R&D Project Manager, Pivot Path Solutions
  csampson@pivotpathsolutions.com
Dr. Thu Nguyen | Associate Professor, University of Maryland – Epidemiology and Biostatistics
  ttxn@umd.edu
Dr. Elizabeth Redcay | Associate Professor, University of Maryland – Psychology
  redcay@umd.edu
Dr. Luiz Pessoa | Professor, University of Maryland – Psychology
  pessoa@umd.edu
Dr. Alexander Shackman | Associate Professor, University of Maryland – Psychology
  shackman@umd.edu
Dr. Chandan Vaidya | Professor, Georgetown University – Psychology
  cjv2@georgetown.edu
Dr. Elliot Berkman | Associate Professor, University of Oregon – Psychology
  berkman@uoregon.edu
Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer | Associate Professor, University of Oregon – Psychology
  jpfeifer@uoregon.edu

Email : merchantjs@gmail.com
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=D5wXfjoAAAAJ
Github: https://github.com/JunaidMerchant
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4315-6211
OSF: osf.io/85skm
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/junaid-s-merchant/