Dr. Veena Nair

Biography

Veena Nair, PhD grew up in Pune, India. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the College of Engineering, Pune, India. Dr. Nair attended Old Dominion University, and she earned her master's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina, where she also completed her doctorate in experimental psychology. Following her education, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Radiology and through a fellowship from the American Heart Association. Dr. Nair joined the Clinical Imaging Physics section as a faculty member in 2025, having worked as a department scientist for a decade. Her expertise lies in cognitive neuroscience, and she has multiple research interests, including the study of human brain plasticity associated with aging and disease. Dr. Nair's background in experimental psychology focuses on the application of multimodal structural and functional brain imaging techniques to patient populations. Her research investigates age-related cerebrovascular factors and stroke, believed to precipitate vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID), which promote the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mixed dementia. Clinically, she focuses on the use of functional MRI for pre-surgical planning for patients with brain tumors, vascular lesions, and epilepsy. Dr. Nair serves as both co-Principal Investigator and co-Investigator on multiple research grants from the NIH, and she has published over 90 peer-reviewed articles, as well as conference papers and book chapters.

Research Interests