Esra Sefik is a postdoctoral research associate and C.V. Starr Fellow at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. She joined the Wang Lab after completing her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Emory University, where she studied neurodevelopmental risk for schizophrenia and autism, using neuroimaging in humans and mice, psychiatric genetics, and cross-species transcriptomics in cortical organoids and mouse models. Her research combines experimental and computational approaches to understand how genetic risk, development, sensory experience, and neuromodulatory signaling shape neural plasticity across scales. In the Wang Lab, she uses in vivo two-photon imaging, whole-brain light-sheet imaging of cleared brains, computational modeling, and quantitative behavioral assays to study critical-period mechanisms, dendritic spine dynamics, autism-relevant mouse models, and experience-dependent learning. Her current work investigates how psilocybin recruits plasticity mechanisms to reshape cortical circuits and promote learning and sensory recovery in adulthood. She also leads comparative meta-analytic work defining allometric scaling laws governing synaptic development across mammalian neocortex. She is passionate about mentoring the next generation of scientists and hopes to build a lifelong career in academia that integrates research, teaching, and mentorship.