Dena Bahmani, PhD
Full-Time Institute Faculty
dbahmani@wi.edu

BSc Clinical Psychology, Tabriz University, Tabriz-Iran, 2007
MSc Psychology, Islamic Azad University of Esfahan, Esfahan-Iran, 2011
PhD Psychology, University of Basel, Basel-Switzerland, 2018

Dr. Dena Bahmani is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Wright Institute. She is also a researcher, with nearly a decade of experience in basic and translational research in the context of psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Dr. Bahmani earned her PhD from the University of Basel (Switzerland) and completed an internship at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich (Germany). She subsequently pursued postdoctoral training at the Psychiatric Clinics of the University of Basel, where she focused on neuroimaging, followed by a second postdoctoral training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where her research centered on technology-based interventions for individuals with neurocognitive disorders.

At Stanford University, during a four-year postdoctoral fellowship—supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and the Stanford Affective Science Research Center—Dr. Bahmani investigated affect-related difficulties in neurocognitive disorders. Her work also involved developing technology-based interventions to improve emotion regulation in clinical populations.

As a principal investigator, Dr. Bahmani has led more than 20 research projects, including cross-sectional, longitudinal, and interventional studies. She has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and two book chapters, and has secured approximately half a million U.S. dollars in research and career grants.

Her research contributions have been recognized by national and international organizations, including the Swiss Society of Biological Psychiatry, Karger Publishers, the European Committee for Research and Treatment in Multiple Sclerosis, the American Committee for Research and Treatment in Multiple Sclerosis, and the Society for Affective Science.

In addition to her research, Dr. Bahmani actively contributes to the scientific and academic community by mentoring and co-mentoring undergraduate research projects, MSc/MA and PhD theses, and training medical students in research. She has also taught courses in both American and Swiss educational systems, including at the PGSP–Stanford PsyD Consortium, Santa Clara University, and the University of Basel (Switzerland).