Jason Hassenstab, PhD

Jason Hassenstab, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Neurology and of Psychological and Brain Sciences and the director of the Cognitive Technology Research Laboratory (CTRLab) at Washington University in St. Louis. He also leads the Cognition Cores for the Dominantly-Inherited Alzheimer Network-Trials Unit (DIAN-TU) and the DIAN observational study and the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. The CTRLab’s focus in on using technology to improve cognitive assessments in Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders. We use measurement burst designs, based on principles from ecological momentary assessment, to measure cognition rapidly and frequently on smartphones in normal and clinical populations. We also develop web-based cognitive assessments designed to be sensitive to the very earliest stages of neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Hassenstab has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2007 and also receives funding from foundations. His most recent projects include development of the Ambulatory Research in Cognition (ARC) smartphone application for the DIAN observational study, the DIAN-TU Phase III clinical trials, and the Healthy Aging and Senile Dementia program project grant at the Knight ADRC. Prior to pursuing academics, Dr. Hassenstab toured internationally as a professional jazz saxophonist, often sporting a purple pinstriped zoot suit, and made hundreds of dollars. He completed a bachelor’s degree in Jazz and Contemporary Music Performance at New York University and a PhD in psychology under mentorship of Dr. Antonio Convit at New York University and Fordham University. He then completed a Fellowship at Brown University and joined the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis in 2010.