Michelle Carr

Michelle is the principal investigator at the Dream Engineering Lab. She is Assistant Professor in the University of Montreal Department of Psychiatry and Addiction. She received her PhD in 2016 working with Dr. Tore Nielsen at the Dream and Nightmare Lab, and completed postdoctoral studies with Dr. Mark Blagrove at Swansea University and Dr. Wilfred Pigeon at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Her current endeavors include a dynamic collaboration with Dr. Pattie Maes at the MIT Media Lab focused on developing the science of dream engineering.

Tore Nielsen

Tore has led the Dream and Nightmare Laboratory at the University of Montreal for over thirty years. One of the first scientific laboratories dedicated explicitly to studying dreams, his work has been monumental in forwarding our knowledge about dreaming. He continues to run the Dream and Nightmare Laboratory while effectively serving as co-PI in the new Dream Engineering Laboratory.

Tobi Matzek

Tobi is a PhD student in psychology - research and intervention- at the University of Montreal, specializing in adult clinical psychology. Their current research involves evaluating a multi-sensory stimulation technique for inducing lucid dreams during REM sleep and they are also working on creating the Montréal Archive of Flying Dreams. With an undergraduate degree in honors psychology from the University of Ottawa, their thesis explored PTSD symptom trajectories in violent crime victims.

Anthony Levasseur

Anthony is a PhD student in psychiatric sciences interested in reconciling, mainly through the emergent science of dream engineering, the relationship between the waking self and the subconscious, elusive, but highly potent, dreaming self. His research focuses on evaluating the impact of cinema on dream content and sleep, using Targeted Dream Incubation.

Claire Friedrich

Claire is a Master’s student in Life Science Engineering at the École Polytechnique de Lausanne, doing her Master thesis in the DxE Lab. Her project is on the development and implementation of an AI-based method of analysis of typical dream themes, using large dream report datasets. She is also designing an online tool for dream rescription that intends to help patients experiencing nightmares. 

Maria Chamas

Maria is pursuing a Master’s degree in Neurosciences at the University of Montreal, focusing on characterizing sleep health and sleep patterns in deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Through her involvement in the DxE Lab, she explores her fascination for sleep medicine, neuro-imaging techniques and research on the intricate connections between sleep, dreams, health, and cognition. In addition to her thesis work, Maria is conducting a review on the links between nightmares, insomnia, and suicide. Her work aims to deepen our understanding of sleep’s role in enhancing physiological and psychological well-being.

Kennedy Robertson

Kennedy is a Master's student in psychology at the University of Montreal, with an academic background in behavioral sciences and philosophy from McGill University. Her research focuses on exploring the diverses experiences of consciousness during dreaming, with an emphasis on social and spiritual experiences in lucid dreaming.

Racha Ouared

BSc in Psychology, is a graduate of the University of Montreal and a research assistant at the DxE Lab. Her research focuses on typical, recurrent, and archetypal dream content. Her project focuses on the development of a dictionary of typical dream themes to examine regularities in dream content and factors influencing dream production. She is also working on a Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR) project using a mixed reality task to assess learning improvement. 

Léa Damian

Léa is pursuing a master's degree in psychiatric sciences and addiction studies at the University of Montreal, where she is exploring the links between sleep, mental health, and health technologies. A biotechnology and e-health engineer, she participates in clinical research on sleep in deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals at Sacré-Cœur Hospital in Montreal. Passionate about neuroscience, health innovation, and human-centered design, she hopes to contribute to the development of solutions that promote physiological and psychological well-being.

Emma-Maria Phillips

Emma is a research assistant, mainly providing help with administrative tasks and supporting the Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR) project. Emma has a multidisciplinary background, mixing psychology (B.Sc) and neuroscience (M.Sc), and hopes to bring her experience with EEG to analyze potential markers of lucid dreaming. 

Claudia Picard-Deland

Claudia, a postdoctoral researcher at the DxE Lab, earned her PhD from the University of Montreal in 2023, mentored by Tore Nielsen. Her research employs Targeted Memory Reactivation to examine how dream content affects learning and behavior, with a particular focus on the phenomena of flying and lucidity within dreams.

Remington Mallett

Remy joined the DxE Lab as a postdoctoral researcher in 2023. His research focused on applying computational methods to dream language and neural data to investigate the links between dreaming and waking cognition. More about his work can be found on his personal website. 

Raphaëlle Semin

Raphaëlle was the lab manager at the DxE Lab from 2023 to 2025, she holds a Master's dregree in Neurosciences from Aix-Marseille University and the University of Montreal. Her research focused on lucid dreaming induction methods, with a particular interest in exploring the neural correlates of conscious states during sleep.

Hila Tabrizian

Hila was the Lab Manager at the DxE Lab. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology at Yorkville University, with a strong interest in trauma-informed and mindfulness-based approaches to therapy. She also holds a B.Sc Psychology and brings experience in clinical research and mental health care.