Syeda is a first-year graduate student in the Psychological Science and Human Development Ph.D. program. She’s interested in understanding protective factors that mitigate the risk of depression and stress disorders. Specifically, she uses modern natural language processing (NLP) tools to explore how people express resilience, emotion, and coping strategies in everyday language. So far, her work has focused on developing a language-based measure of resilience using large language models (LLMs) to capture resilience from a temporally dynamic perspective.

Syeda values collaborative, interdisciplinary, and quantifiable research. She believes in sharing both significant and non-significant findings to support open and transparent science. Before starting her Ph.D., she earned an MPH in Biostatistics and Epidemiology and spent three years as a researcher and coordinator in a human-centered NLP lab called HLAB.

Outside of research, Syeda also enjoys a variety of activities, with her favorite hobbies including sketching, painting, horseback riding, and cooking.

Degrees: B.A., Psychology, Magna cum Laude, St. Joseph’s University, 2022

MPH, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Stony Brook University, 2024

Ph.D., Psychology, Cornell University, expected 2030

Curriculum Vitae