With the 2025 Flux Congress just around the corner, the Flux Trainee Committee is excited to spotlight some of your fellow attendees through our trainee research profiles. If you’re a trainee—whether a student, post-bacc, or postdoc—and would like to be featured, we invite you to fill out our interest form!
At Flux, we are committed to nurturing the next generation of researchers who are shaping the future of developmental cognitive neuroscience. In our new Trainee Spotlight series, we will highlight the achievements, aspirations, and contributions of outstanding trainees within our community. These young scientists are not only pushing the boundaries of research but also embodying the spirit of collaboration and innovation that drives our field forward.
Today, we are excited to introduce Maria Jelen. Let's dive into their journey, insights, and what motivates them to make a lasting impact in developmental cognitive neuroscience.
Maria Jelen
Graduate student (PhD, Masters), University of Cambridge
What is the focus of your research?
Currently, I am investigating mental health symptoms in a large cohort of young people through a transdiagnostic, developmental lens. I'm also interested in how atypical development of functional brain connectivity may be associated with risk for mental health challenges.
What is your most interesting research finding or inquiry so far?
When I set out to study transdiagnostic psychopathology, I anticipated that young people's symptoms were unlikely to be easily separable into discrete diagnostic labels. I did not anticipate, however, just how diverse I would find individuals' symptom profiles and trajectories to be. My finding that young people do not cluster into distinct sub-communities based on psychopathology led me to the use of machine learning to parse the multidimensional, latent space of mental health, which I soon plan to connect with fMRI data.
What do you enjoy doing when not working on your PhD?
Outside of research, I love performing music, spending time with animals, travelling, and rock climbing.
Best piece of advice you have received as a trainee?
While I am still early in my PhD, I think the best advice has been to take my time during doctoral training to really explore my interests and imbue my curiosity about my topic into my research. Formal milestones and deadlines are, of course, very important, but I have been advised that rather than treating the PhD as a checklist, it is an important time of stable funding and supportive supervision, best used to commit oneself to passionate research!
Do you have any advice for early-stage trainees?
I would say to really use training opportunities, both immersive in-person courses and the wealth of good resources available online. When training new skills, it's also important to set a context for them - for example, when learning a new coding language or analysis method, setting up a mini-project to use the new skills in practice has really made the difference for me between retaining the ability for the future, or losing it not long after completing the course!
Most useful resource that you would recommend to other trainees in developmental cognitive neuroscience?
I highly recommend Neuromatch for great tutorials and neuroscience methods training, and the COGNESTIC training offered by my department, the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge. These materials have been highly impactful for my training.
Are you presenting at the Flux meeting in Dublin?
Yes, I will be presenting a Poster.
Please list any social media accounts / personal websites that you would like us to highlight
https://bsky.app/profile/mariabjelen.bsky.social
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-jelen/