Anastasia Yendiki, Harvard

Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School

Anastasia had many interests as a young girl growing up in Greece. She loved dancing, reading, media, math and science. Society told her that the field of STEM however was not for women. Anastasia was not deterred by this message however, and even more determined to go on to become a scientist and work every day proving that women too can do anything.

To hear the full Women to Watch™ Media interview with Anastasia, listen below.

Full Biography

Anastasia Yendiki is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and an Assistant Physicist at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a brain researcher who uses her training as an engineer to develop computer software that analyzes MRI brain scans. She is particularly interested in the wiring of the brain – how different brain regions are connected to each other and how these connections differ in those who suffer from psychiatric and neurological disorders. She hopes to one day develop methods for more precise and earlier diagnosis of mental illness, based on a quick and safe brain scan.

Anastasia was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. After studying Electrical Engineering at the University of Thessaloniki, she moved to Ann Arbor, MI for grad school. She received her master’s and doctorate degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, specializing in medical imaging. She then moved to Boston to work, first as a postdoctoral research fellow and then as a member of the faculty, at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, a research center affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. This was where she got her introduction to brain imaging, the area that she is still pursuing her research in today.

For more information on Anastasia, check out the links below!