Evelina Fedorenko

Born in 1980 in Volgograd in the Soviet Union, Fedorenko moved to the United States in 1998.[1] In 2002, she graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in psychology and linguistics. She then went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for her graduate degree in cognitive science and neuroscience, receiving her Ph.D in 2007.[2]

As of December 2019, Fedorenko is an associate professor and laboratory head[3] in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences department at MIT, and an associate member of MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research, as well as an associate researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital. She was an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School (2014–2019).[4]

Her specialty is the human language system. Her goal is to try to provide a representation of our brain regions and to study individuals who have healthy brain regions and who have brain disorders. She is also trying to understand the calculations that we perform in our everyday life. During her research she uses different kinds of methods including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), ERPs and intracranial recordings.[2] One of her areas of research is the brains of polyglots, who speak multiple languages.[1] This research has been featured in The New Yorker magazine[1] and the BBC World Service documentary, The Polyglots.[5]

In 2007, she received the Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00 career development award) from Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).[2]

She is married to Ted Gibson, a cognitive scientist.[1]

• Evelina Fedorenko publications indexed by Google Scholar
• Ev Fedorenko's Language Lab