Dr. Simona Temereanca Ibanescu is a PhD neuroscientist and data scientist with over 15 years of experience at the intersection of academic research and commercial innovation. Before starting Cardinal Labs, she worked in the industry as a Lead Scientist for Soar Technology and Principal Investigator for Pison Technology, leading cross-functional teams to develop and validate AI-powered neurotechnology, digital biomarkers, and medical decision support tools while serving as liaison between data science, engineering, and business development.

Previously, she held research and faculty roles at Brown University and Harvard Medical School. Leveraging innovations developed at Carney Institute for Brain Science and the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, she combined multi-modal neuroimaging, closed-loop electrophysiology, and advanced computational methods to decode brain mechanisms for human behavior, sensorimotor and cognitive function, and to find biomarkers that track treatment effects.

Simona grew up in Targu Jiu, Romania. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from the University of Bucharest, a PhD in neuroscience from University of Pittsburgh, and postdoctoral training in neuroimaging at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.