Welcome to the OWL Lab!

Director: Nur Hani Zainal, Ph.D.

National University of Singapore (NUS) Presidential Young Professorship (PYP) Assistant Professor

I am a Presidential Young Professorship (PYP) Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Director of the Optimizing Wellness (OWL) Lab. I completed a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship at Harvard Medical School (HMS), received my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University, and completed my predoctoral clinical fellowship at the HMS-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in the Cognitive Behavioral Scientist Track.

My research centers on technology-facilitated interventions, particularly digital mental health interventions (DMHIs), and I am especially interested in identifying the predictors, moderators, and mediators that influence their effectiveness. Beyond this, I investigate how neurocognitive processes, psychoneuroimmunology, and cognitive-behavioral strategies contribute to the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders. To advance these aims, I draw on a range of approaches and datasets, including cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys, basic science experiments, ecological momentary assessments, and prospective cross-panel designs.

I hope to make novel and positively impactful contributions to both basic science and translational clinical research and practice. Moreover, I am grateful to have received several awards that have supported my career, including the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) Leonard Krasner Dissertation Award, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) Alies Muskin Career Development Leadership Program (CDLP), and the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) Superior Teaching and Research (STAR) award.