ESTHER • FUJIWARA

Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta

I received my PhD in Psychology at the University of Bielefeld in Germany. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto (ON), I joined the Department of Psychiatry in 2007. Current studies in my lab investigate emotion-cognition interactions in neurological/psychiatric and healthy populations. In my spare time, I love being with my family and friends, good food, music, and traveling. I also sometimes do statistics for no reason and enjoy gaming.

Our Team

Lujie Xu

PhD student, Department of Psychiatry

I began my PhD in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Alberta in 2021. I am now focused on a multi-aspect project aimed at enhancing knowledge of how mental health comorbidities affect health outcomes in individuals with HIV. Fun fact about me: Although I enjoy singing, I admit I’m not very good at it!

Zahra Ghofrani

MSc student, Department of Psychiatry

I began my master's studies in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Alberta in 2024. Currently, I am working on a project with multiple different aspects aimed at enhancing our understanding of emotion-cognition interactions and mental health comorbidities among people with HIV compared to healthy populations. My ultimate goal is to understand how to improve mental well-being for individuals living with HIV. I am an adventurous person both in science and nature! Therefore, in my spare time, I enjoy hiking, camping in jungles, and mountain climbing.

Roshni DWivedi

Summer student, Undergraduate Program in Science, Specialization in Psychology

I have been a part of the Fujiwara lab since first year and my research interests lie in mood disorders, alexithymia, eating disorders and eye tracking studies. I am so excited to continue to learn and grow my research skills throughout the years to come!

Yousef Jallad

Summer Student, Undergraduate Honours, Department of Physiology

My work in the lab is on a project looking at gender and health outcomes. In my spare time I competitively swim, play water polo, and (attempt) to play the saxophone.

Ahmed Abdel-Sayyed

BSc, Research Assistant

I graduated with a bachelor of science (specializing in psychology) in 2023 and my primary research in the lab is focused on gender roles on determining health outcomes. I had the opportunity to publish my first paper with the efforts of my team and principal investigator!

Shui Jiang

PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow (co-supervised with Drs. Foo/Aitchison)

I just finished my PhD in Medical Genetics in 2023 and I am now a Postdoctoral Fellow. My current research focuses on gene-environment interactions and their association with behavioural addiction and self-harm at a genomic level.