Hello! I’m Sylvie, a fourth year PhD candidate in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University School of Medicine.
My research sits at the intersection of aging epidemiology and digital health. I study how older adults — particularly stroke survivors — move through the world after a major health event, and what that movement tells us about cognition, recovery, and risk.
I studied Molecular and Cellular Biology with a Neuroscience concentration at UC Berkeley before coming to Stanford.
News
Apr 2026 — New paper in Innovation in Aging: "Seasonal Variation in Temperature and Life-Space Mobility among Older Adults: A Pilot Study using Mobile Health Technology." (DOI)
Nov 2025- Featured by Stanford Data Science: “Using Data to Reimagine Recovery: How Sylvie Dobrota Lai is Empowering Stroke Survivors Through Digital Health.” (link)
Sep 2025 — Awarded NIH T32 training appointment in Advanced Data Analytics for Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (TADA-BSSR), NHLBI.
Aug 2024 — Awarded NIH F31 Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Institute on Aging (1F31AG090102).
Jun 2024 — Awarded Stanford Data Science Scholarship to support my PhD studies.
Aug 2022 - Started my PhD in Epidemiology at Stanford School of Medicine.