FOUNDER, EIC EMERITUS

Sarah Feng is an undergraduate studying Neuroscience and Humanities at Yale. She des research on the neurobiology and cognitive neuroscience of how stress and trauma affect our learning and memory circuitry. She is especially interested in the prefrontal cortex and executive control. Further, she is intrigued by philosophical questions about the interplay between natural and artificial intelligence in the coming years. At her heart, she loves writing and reading the most; her favorite authors include William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Paul Celan, Haruki Murakami, and Joyce Carol Oates. She is originally from Northern California, and she loves forests, fireflies, dark chocolate, and frozen yogurt. Feel free to reach out to chat about books, science, or anything at all, at sarah.feng@yale.edu.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

David is a sophomore in Jonathan Edwards college majoring in linguistics and computing & the arts. He loves to write fiction (he’s technically an Amazon best-selling author), but he’s also obsessed with exploring other mediums of story, like video games, cuneiform hip hop music videos, and spoken word. Outside of Cortex, David can be found breakdancing in Franklin, making conlanging videos for his youtube channel, or doing funky stuff with html and music theory. He is a huge Avatar: The Last Airbender fan, and wants to be a xenolinguist when he grows up (but if we don’t discover aliens, whales and monkeys are cool too). Check out his personal website and blog.

TREASURER, POETRY EDITOR

Ece Serdaroglu is a sophomore in Silliman College planning to study MB&B or Chemistry. Apart from CORTEX, I work in the Chemistry student labs and am a volunteer reader for the Yale Review. I am also super passionate about ancient history and archaeology! When I am not drowning in work, you can find me ruining my digestive health with iced coffee, exploring abandoned buildings, or catching up on my favorite murder mysteries and old-timey sci-fi (proud Trekkie here!).

MUSIC LEAD GENRE EDITOR

Jack Davisson is a sophomore in Trumbull College studying mechanical engineering and music. He hails from sunny Palo Alto, California and has yet to adjust to New Haven weather. Jack is often found playing guitar in his suite common room (his suitemates are too polite to tell him to knock it off) and looking at memes in the Trumbull gym. He also enjoys playing and watching soccer and takes a special kind of pleasure in making fun of Manchester United supporters. Jack is inspired to create music by Hans Zimmer, the undisputed GOAT of music production.

PRESIDENT

Roxana Grunenwald (she/her) is a senior in Branford College studying Philosophy & Humanities. She lives laughs loves all things German Romanticism, from philosophy to literature to art, and fantasizes about those six short but glorious years from 1798-1804 when Early Romanticism flourished in Jena, Germany, and acted as the original Big Bang for later strains of Romanticism to filter and disperse throughout the world. Discovering Emerson at an early age and Whitman much later was utter serendipity, pretty much an acting (vegan) banana split in her life. She is an original founding member of CORTEX and has devoted all 250% of her free time to inventing new and experimental ways to push creative boundaries as the previous Nonfiction LGE. She is interested in entrepreneurship, venture capital, environmental sustainability, and is honored to have touched so many tender souls through CORTEX social events throughout the years.

VISUAL ARTS EDITOR

Kamryn Davenport is a freshman in TD, born and raised in Dover, DE. Growing up, she could be spotted wherever hunched over a sketchbook and practicing her portrait skills. Kamryn became interested in astronomy, especially stellar evolution, after researching for fun the summer after sophomore year in high school. Combining the two, she now wants to study how arts and humanities interact with astronomy throughout history (majors are very confusing at the moment…). When she is not overwhelmed with assignments, she loves curating monthly Spotify playlists, journaling her thoughts, and creating collages. You can always find her at TD’s Duty Nights and the TD art studio (if she’s not rotting in bed). Also, if you want to her to talk your ear off, mention her favorite book, Legendborn by Tracy Deonn.

FICTION EDITOR

Kenny is a sophomore in Silliman studying Astrophysics. He's been researching Neptune & Jupiter recently, and is fascinated by the question of extraterrestrial life. He loves live music, with preference for jazz & punk rock. He likes to read poetry, philosophy, history, & sci-fi, explore the woods, and talk about methods of anticolonial resistance. He is the proud owner of a rattly English bike from the 1970s and a copy of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward Fitzgerald.

VISUAL ARTS & MUSIC EDITOR

Sophie Mo is a freshman in Branford college from the Bay Area in California. She currently takes DS so has no time to think about her prospective major (Computing and the Arts? Humanities?). She enjoys playing around with cyanotypes and 3-string guitars, but wants to explore other photography processing formats and maybe even learn to DJ. In her free time, she enjoys watching squirrels on Old Campus and listening to Boiler Room sets on YouTube.

VISUAL ARTS & POETRY EDITOR

Carlo Barton (probably) exists as a person. He is a freshman and proud Yale Berkeleyite who currently plans on majoring in Cognitive Science because he finds the notion of consciousness fascinating. His hometown is Gardnerville, a small town in Nevada where the most exciting thing is the Autumn breeze and auburn-turning of Aspen leaves. When he's not in his dorm room reading fantasy or philosophy, you can find him zoning out at the most inopportune times while pondering yearning.

MUSIC EDITOR

Diana is a sophomore in Morse studying Mechanical Engineering. She is from Ellicott City, Maryland, which is a place no one’s really heard of and too far to be considered DC or Baltimore. When she is not staring at her PSETS for hours pondering her existence, she can be found conjuring up a new beat in the Morse/Stiles recording studio, where she spends way too much time. She writes, co-produces, and releases music under her own name, so you can find her on any streaming platform. You’ll also sometimes find her in the CEID 3D printing or building a robot or something. Diana is particularly interested in the intersection between engineering and music, and uses her music platform to advocate for underrepresented students in STEM. She hopes to create accessible user-centered technology, bridging the gap between users and inventors.

VISUAL ARTS EDITOR

Lily Chatalbasheva is a junior in Jonathan Edwards college, double-majoring in Global Affairs and Physics & Philosophy. She is crazy passionate about reading--the more genres, the better--and has a mini library at home with hundreds of books! Outside of Cortex, she is also part of Yale Model UN, Yale Model UN Europe, and the Yale Review of International Studies. For fun, she likes to paint, hike, philosophize, and follow Formula 1 or the occasional anime.

POETRY LEAD GENRE EDITOR

Sheyla Melissa is a junior in Ezra Stiles from sunny San Diego. She is a History major, concentrating in Latin America and working toward obtaining a Mandarin certificate. Sheyla has been a passionate writer since her years as a young girl in Cuba. Her parents loved writing poems and kept several notebooks, or papers here and there—they still do. As a CORTEX poet, she is interested in delving into how art can make us uncomfortable and how to incorporate foreign languages (mainly Spanish) to elevate storytelling in her writing. When not writing poetry for CORTEX, Sheyla enjoys listening to music and doing work at the Elm or the Women’s Center. She’s always down for an Uno match (you will lose) or an impromptu boba meetup. Need horror recs? She is your person.

FICTION LEAD GENRE EDITOR

Growing up in the small ski town of Sun Valley, Idaho, Matthew Letourneau found a passion for writing and storytelling at a young age. In the mountainous wilderness, he would often find himself exploring rivers, hot springs, cliffs, canyons, and anywhere else he could hike to. In his writing, Matthew embraces his experiences in Idaho, frequently exploring the themes of the outdoors and adventure. In high school, Matthew left Idaho to attend St. Paul's School, a boarding school in New Hampshire. Here, he honed his writing skills, discovered a love for history and philosophy, and published his first book, "On the Watchman's Ridge," during his junior year. Today, as an undergraduate student at Yale University, Matthew still embarks on adventures, plays club hockey, participates in the Fifth Humour sketch comedy group, and writes as much as he can.

NONFICTION EDITOR

Maxwell Kiekhofer (he/him) is a big fan of landscape paintings, especially oil paintings with soft clouds. A recently declared Anthropology major, one should avoid bringing up Arrival (2016) unless they are hoping to discuss for several hours. You can likely find Max in one of the following location: A dining hall typing furiously next to a plate of once-hot-now-cold entrees and crumbs from one-too-many helpings of dessert; In a local coffee shop with horrendous posture drafting a poem in his notes app that already houses over 1,700 other notes; Or taking floor-time on any hard surface around campus. As an in-training non-fiction writer for CORTEX, Max cannot wait to share his love for humanity and poetry growing in the cracks of science, with the world.

NONFICTION EDITOR

MeiLan is a dual US-Austrian citizen who grew up in Colorado Springs, right up against the Rocky Mountains. She is a psychology major working as an undergrad RA in the Social Perception and Communications Lab, Co-captain of Yale's Club Co-ed Ice Hockey team, and a CCE. Since 2021, she has loved loved loved being a part of CORTEX's unbelievably creative and collaborative community, which constantly challenges, inspires, and brings brilliant friends into her life. She writes about everything from Shakespearean dresses covered in beetle wings, to the psychology of perception, to the embodied experience of trauma.

NONFICTION & MUSIC EDITOR

Mina is a first-year in Davenport who has ambitions in many spheres of knowledge, currently pursuing Ethics, Politics, and Economics on the pre-medical track. Anything that blends the lines between the subjective and the objective excites her, and she loves to contemplate the various connections between the human soul and the scientific world. Besides writing and producing music for CORTEX, Mina continues in collective expression through orchestras like Yale Symphony Orchestra and Davenport Pops, works to advocate for affordable prescription medicine with Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM), and keeps in touch with her cultural roots by hanging out with KASY and restarting the Korean acapella group, Hangarak. In her bits and pieces of spare time, she enjoys tea, reading classical foreign literature, and indulging in a classic film.

FICTION EDITOR

Helen Zhang is a first year at Pauli Murray College, intending to major in Neuroscience or BME. She is from Beijing, China and studied in Singapore. She adores the interdisciplinary and transgressive nature of Cortex. She interested in neuroaesthetics: how our brain perceives art, beauty, and the sublime. She loves dog-earing pages, discovering new metaphors, and intruding into the minds of unreliable narrators, who alienate us most from our own perspective and invite us to change and be changed. If there is any kind of magic in this world, it must be in the ability—or at least the attempt—to break out of our own subjectivity and understand somebody else's. Outside of reading and writing, she also enjoys playing basketball, performing with Yale's spoken word poetry group WORD, being terrible at all sorts of water sports.

NONFICTION EDITOR

Araddhya Tibrewall is a freshman in Ezra Stiles majoring in physics or cognitive science or coolness. He loves Geronimo Stilton and Arséne Lupin, cloaks and daggers, the infinitely large and the infinitely small. He loves to think. His favorite books are Scythe and Fathers and Sons. You can spot him from a mile away with his bright orange backpack and boot scoot boots, talking animatedly about the moment autumn leaves get crushed under spinny wheels. Someday, one day, everyday, or in perhaps another lifetime, he'll be working at the CIA.....

POETRY EDITOR

Daniel Yim, a first-year in Ezra Stiles College, writes poems. He enjoys experimental opera and paleoart. His current projects include a book-length ode to Haegue Yang and a site-specific song cycle for soprano and organ that he intends to burn upon completion. Apart from CORTEX, he reviews Asian arthouse cinema and reads for The Yale Review.

VISUAL ARTS EDITOR

Chris is a sophomore in Saybrook College studying Computing and the Arts on the visual art track. He is a fan of anything with a touch of the fantastical, and always seeks to build engaging worlds and experiences through his creative work. He is a part of Amoriem Labs (working on a inter-dimensional rhythm game this year!) and also plays cello for DPops. He is also a big fan of Nintendo games and Ghibli movies, and probably knows too much about Pokémon. You can find him doodling in class when he shouldn't be, and if you hear sounds of pain, it's because he was on the wrong layer.

SOCIALS CHAIR, POETRY EDITOR

Mara is a sophomore in Benjamin Franklin college. She is from Sevierville, Tennessee. She grew up in the Appalachian mountains exploring and building makeshift boats out of rhododendron leaves. She plans to pursue psychology and environmental studies, and she’s interested in how art and creative writing can be used to help solve multifaceted modern issues that are hard for humans to process. She loves rainy days, fireflies, and live music; her favorite thing to do with friends is drive around with nowhere to go.

NONFICTION LEAD GENRE EDITOR

Adam Tufts is a Junior in Berkeley College studying Philosophy & Global Health. Academically, he gets excited about all things which lie in the intersection of the sciences and the humanities (though he'd add here that he finds the very existence of this division a little bit questionable). Specifically, he tends to engage with the fields of public health policy, science communication, and creative non-fiction (surprising!). Personally, his interests are kind of all over the place. They include, but are in no way limited to: suspense and Sci-Fi novels (he is the #1 Stephen King aficionado), sad folky pop music (by this he means folklore/evermore, Noah Kahan, & a lil Lana), woodworking sometimes (he can make really bad desks... a topic one could potentially maybe encounter a recent Cortex article), and parentheticals (truly, life is too short to pretend you don't like them).


NONFICTION EDITOR

Spencer Greenfield is a senior hailing from the great state of New Jersey. He likes to do things with a lot of words: he’s studying Earth & Planetary Science with a certificate in Climate Change Science & Solutions, and besides CORTEX, he’s the co-organizer of the Feminist Science & Technology Studies Undergraduate Collective. Hobbies with fewer words include guitar playing, tie dying, coffee brewing, concert going, and early-morning shenanigans with friends. He’s an aspiring human geographer and child at heart. Past nicknames include: Spencer from iCarly, Tie-Dye Kid, Sprinkles, Brian May, Spencer the Fencer, and Soap [diSpencer].

VISUAL ARTS EDITOR

Cozette is a sophomore in Saybrook College. She enjoys language, the humanities, arts, and social sciences (and doesn't mind a bit of econ, biology, or environmental science) and feels especially passionate about the politics of memory. Outside of CORTEX, Cozette is a part of the YUAG Gallery Guides program and works at the Peabody Museum, as well as co-captaining Yale Club Archery. For fun, Cozette enjoys playing aggressive amounts of Dungeons and Dragons, pouring inordinate amounts of spice into their food, and offering warm hugs.

FICTION EDITOR

Mela is:
- An anthropology major
- A lifelong ///
- 5'9" in their favorite boots.

Their interests include letterpress printing, tabletop gaming, blacksmithing, kayaking, zines and indie publishing, and reading too many books at once.

NONFICTION EDITOR

Richard is a sophomore in Saybrook college studying math and humanities. When experiencing [thing], Richard always rummages for things inside [thing] (or things outside [thing]). Apart from Cortex, you can find Richard playing spikeball on any green space > 25 sq ft or intensely glaring \exists x painting \in y space.

FICTION EDITOR

Chloe is a freshman in Berkeley majoring in MB&B who loves reading and writing, especially historical fantasy. She grew up in Miami and loves to drink tea with every meal. Her fun fact is always that she is part Transylvanian. Outside of CORTEX, she is part of the club water polo team and the YUAA.

FICTION EDITOR

Kane Trundle is a freshman in Branford and a prospective Physics major. Growing up in the small town of Monterey, California, Kane spent most of his time exploring all things nature from the rugged sea cliffs of Point Lobos to the undulating hills of the Salinas Valley. When he’s not outside touching grass, Kane can be found reading weird Sci-fi novels, struggling with his PSETs, or chatting with friends over coffee. Kane is passionate about all things science and hopes to use story-telling as a way to explore the many mysteries of the universe.

POETRY EDITOR

Chloe Prasetya is a freshman in Stiles interested in English, anthropology and history. She is Indonesian and Korean and grew up in Singapore. Her favorite genres to read are historical fiction and magical realism; her current favorites include The Overstory, The God of Small Things, and Midnight’s Children. She’s always looking for recommendations (though her ever-growing TBR might disagree). She enjoys thinking about the process of narrativization as much as narratives themselves, and who is excluded or misrepresented on the page. Outside of writing poetry, she likes museum-hopping, taking photos around campus, trying her hand at calligraphy, and avidly rewatching musicals (Les Mis and Hadestown never get old.) She can spend hours down various rabbit holes - hidden object games, jigsaw puzzles, stubborn rounds of NYT Connections, you name it - and she's excited to be part of the similarly winding, exploratory production process of Cortex.

MUSIC EDITOR

Orion is a Kosovar student from Stiles, pursuing a diverse range of interests, from Mathematics and Philosophy to Computer Science, with stops in Cognitive Science and Physics along the way. He is drawn to the questions surrounding consciousness, emergence, and AI, finding inspiration in the works of Chalmers, Hofstadter, Dennett, and Minsky.

Beyond his academics, he's a composer and producer, focusing on post-rock, ambient, and orchestral music. He also incorporates field recordings. His influences range from Bowie and Eno to Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Swans. Visually, he makes abstract art, experimenting with noise maps, photo manipulation, and 3D landscape rendering.

Orion is an avid reader. His literary tastes encompass Vonnegut, Asimov, Douglas Adams, Greg Egan, and Ray Bradbury, alongside the philosophy of Camus, Nietzsche, Kripke, and Russell. This is reflected in his own writing, where he crafts detailed sci-fi stories with meticulously developed tech systems, showcasing his passion for worldbuilding.

A productivity enthusiast, he uses Obsidian to organize his projects and interests. Outside of his academic and creative pursuits, Orion enjoys David Lynch, Star Trek, games like Stellaris and Rimworld, and hiking. He is also the founder of the Yale League of Memory. orion.shtrezi@yale.edu

FICTION EDITOR

Platon Rama is a first-year student in Silliman College. In addition to that, he is wondering why you are reading his bio, partially flattered in fact. Anyway, time to cut the 3rd person and speak directly to you:

I'd like you to know that I, Platon Rama, love learning about how the world works. This love expands into researching why (religious studies), where (global affairs), and how (astronomy) the world functions. I try to use writing as a way to reflect on these passions, and hopefully translate some of that into pieces capable of imprinting impressions that could maybe, y’know, inspire somebody to do good.

And on that note of inspiring good, do something to make someone smile today (this "someone" can include yourself).

NONFICTION EDITOR

Max is a first yeаr in Davenport College planning to study comparative literature and linguistics with a focus in translation. He’s interested in representations of architecture and space in literature, critical horror studies, literary depictions of time and memory, large bodies of water, and creating the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. Outside of Cortex, you might find him rewatching Alien (again), procrastinating homework by trawling the World Atlas of Language Structures, or napping in the Gilmore Music Library.

MUSIC EDITOR

Michael Gancz (b. 1999) is a composer, performer, and AI researcher working at the intersection of technology, science, and creative expression. Their music has been featured in concerts, theater productions, video games, films, and festivals across the world. Gancz's research has been published in journals including Science, The Journal of the Royal Society, and Carillon and Bell Culture in the Low Countries. Their debut EP 'there is no song' released on April 28th.

MUSIC EDITOR

Ben is a sophomore in Davenport, interested in studying history and the humanities. Outside of Cortex, you might find him playing intramurals, procrastinating in Sterling, or on a common room piano. He'd like to start writing more articles next semester.

POETRY LEAD GENRE EDITOR

Hi! I’m Suraj, one of the poetry editors, and I’m from Johns Creek, GA. Outside of Cortex, you can find me binge-reading graphic novels, podcasting at the YDN, doing theatre things, or generally just walking around campus wearing some article of yellow clothing. Exploring the universe with this group of people has been so rewarding, and I’m so excited for the amazing ideas that this year will bring!

VISUAL ARTS LEAD GENRE EDITOR

Emily Cai is a senior (declining organism) and aspiring artist (narcissist). She is studying Computing and the Arts and is interested in making work that blends the physical and digital. Outside of the studio, she enjoys running, baking, and making things.

VISUAL ARTS LEAD GENRE EDITOR

Nathan Apfel is a senior in Pierson College majoring in mathematics and physics. He’s been illustrating at Cortex for over a year, and he’s found the whole endeavor—every moment drawing, every morning discussing whacky, esoteric ideas, even the last minute scramble to get everything put together on time—profoundly meaningful. In Cortex, he’s not only found an incredible community of unique and fascinating people; he’s also been able to explore crazy ideas in philosophy and science through art, a medium many in the STEM world discount. He’s never had formal training in art, he picked up drawing and painting over the pandemic (a pretty common experience). Cortex has allowed him to turn this hobby into something meaningful and fun.

POETRY EDITOR

Leander (he/they) is a Linguistics major, always waxing poetic about words. Outside of CORTEX, he works for Blackfoot Lab and reads poetry submissions for The Yale Review.

VISUAL ARTS EDITOR

Ariel is a super-senior at Stiles interested in all things art and speculative. Sci Fi enables her apocalyptic paranoia. Ariel dedicates an unhealthy amount of time weaving intricate lies called "stories" and completing personality "assessments". You can catch her guessing the MBTI of random strangers with 65% accuracy.

VISUAL ARTS EDITOR

Yo yo everyone!! I’m Chizaram “Zara” Aidevo Belo from Longview, Texas, and I’m one of the illustrators in CORTEX. I’m a prospective neuroscience major on the pre med track (pray 4 me) and I’m a huge fan of multiple animation genres, neo soul music, and archival fashion. You can find me hunched over in science hill (¬_¬), typing away in the Haas Family Arts Library, or chilling in the Afro American Cultural Center, aka the House! I hope you all traverse the worlds CORTEX creates!

FICTION LEAD GENRE EDITOR

Hi! My name is Lee. If you ask me what I plan to major in, my answer changes every day, but the current contenders are English and Classics. You can probably find me writing essays in Sterling at all hours of the day (and night), singing with the Yale Slavic Chorus, or knitting in the cemetery. Some of my favorite works of literature right now are "Shakespeare and Co., Paris: A History of the Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart" (a heartfelt history of a bookshop, including writing by the incredible literary figures who have stayed there since the 1950s), the game "Cragne Manor" (a collaboration between 80+ authors brought together by their love for the text adventure game "Anchorhead"), and Sappho's Fragment 55.

VISUAL ARTS EDITOR

Micah Greyeyes is a '24 Berkeley College alum majoring in Theater and Performance Studies. Outside of CORTEX, they’re a Peer Liaison for the NACC and an artist at Amoriem Labs, the undergraduate game design club at Yale. They love 2D animation, iced coffee, and the colour green.

MUSIC LEAD GENRE EDTOR

Mars is a '24 Silliman College alum double-majoring in History and German Studies. Beyond Cortex, he sing bass in the jazz a cappella group Redhot & Blue, plays the flute in the Davenport Pops orchestra, and composes for Amoriem Labs, Yale's undergraduate game development studio. He also works as a Peer Liaison for the Yale Office of LGBTQ Resources and a Chinese language tutor for the Center for Language Study. In his free time, he can be found at the gym, playing indie RPGs, listening to alt rock, or hanging out at Atticus/Koffee!

FICTION EDITOR

William Archacki is a junior in Pierson College. He is a chemistry major and the features editor at Yale Scientific Magazine. Sometimes he wonders whether the personal, playful act of writing is compatible with the impersonal rigor of the sciences. At Cortex Magazine, he finds symbiosis between disciplines. In Volume III: The Scale Issue, he wrote a story about Greenland’s ice sheet, an empty and expansive part of the world that he can never read enough about.

POETRY EDITOR

Jisu is a sophomore in TD hoping to study English (maybe). Along with Cortex, she writes and copy edits for the Herald, dabbles in gel-x nail design, and enjoys power naps in the TD library.

POETRY EDITOR

Jessica Yu is a junior at Yale University majoring in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. She is interested in the intersection between women’s health, medicine, and aging biology. Committed to healthcare accessibility, Jessica serves as an advocacy intern for Planned Parenthood, focusing on amplifying underrepresented Asian voices in her community. In her leisure time, she enjoys expressing her creativity through writing and editing poetry for CORTEX magazine and experimenting with food recipes in the student kitchen (which can get chaotic).

MUSIC EDITOR

Everett is a junior in Jonathan Edwards double majoring in Applied Physics and Chemistry. He comes from sunny Los Angeles, and is still deeply confused about how to deal with cold weather. When he's not stuck doing a PSET, Everett loves music, particularly singing! He sings with the Yale Glee Club, helps lead the acapella group Mixed Company of Yale, and can always be found doing at least one musical theater production. Outside of classes and extracurriculars, Everett loves sci-fi, particularly space operas, and songwriting!

FICTION LEAD GENRE EDITOR

MUSIC EDITOR

NONFICTION EDITOR

VISUAL ARTS EDITOR

VISUAL ARTS EDITOR

MUSIC EDITOR

FICTION EDITOR

MUSIC EDITOR

FICTION EDITOR

MUSIC EDITOR

NONFICTION EDITOR

NONFICTION EDITOR

NONFICTION EDITOR