awards

Kavli NDI awards support the training of a new generation of transdisciplinary neuroscientists, engineers, and data scientists to equip them to meet tomorrow’s research challenges.

To learn more about Kavli NDI sponsored award recipients please see below.

  • KAVLI NEUROSCIENCE DISTINGUISHED FELLOWS PROGRAM

    • This program was established to provide a cross-disciplinary training platform for Postdoctoral Fellows through the support of bold research that bridges neuroscience to engineering and data science. Kavli NDI recognizes that Postdoctoral fellows are a highly skilled research force that are often the driving force in breakthrough discoveries. This program aims to foster groundbreaking discoveries while equipping our scientists with interdisciplinary skills and mindset for their future careers.

        DISTINGUISHED Kavli NDI POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS

      • Clare Jung Yoon Choi, PHD

        Title: Bridging Synaptic Plasticity and Neural Network Activity underlying Short-term Memory

        PI: Richard Huganir, Department of Neuroscience

        CoPI: Patrick Kanold, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      • Kurt Golcuk, PHD

        Title: Conjoint outcome prediction and reporting by ACh, DA, NE, & 5-HT in primary visual and auditory cortices 

        PI: Marshall G.H. Shuler, Department of Neuroscience

        CoPI: Kishore Kuchibhotla, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

      • Jennifer Lawlor, PHD

        Title: Long-range circuits for learning of audiomotor tasks: investigating cholinergic control of sensorimotor acquisition

        PI: Kishore Kuchibhotla, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

        CoPI: Adam Charles, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      • Robyn L. Mildren, PHD

        TITLE OF RESEARCH PROJECT:Probing and manipulating the neural mechanisms underlying internal models of self-motion using high-density read-write electrode technology

        PI: Kathleen Cullen, Department of Biomedical Engineering

        CoPI: Tim Harris, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      • William Paul Olson, PHD

        Title: Muscle spindle afferent action in jaw motor control under perturbation

        PI: Daniel O’Connor, Department of Neuroscience

        CoPI: Noah Cowan, Department of Mechanical Engineering

      • Dimitri A. Skandalis, PHD

        Title: Neural encoding of manual dexterity in hovering bats

        PI: Cynthia F. Moss, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences

        CoPI: Laurent Younes, Center for Imaging Science & Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics

  • Kavli NDI Distinguished Graduate Student Fellows Program

    • Kavli NDI recognizes graduate students who demonstrate a particular transdisciplinary interest in neuroscience and engineering or data science to become members of Kavli NDI. These mid- and advanced-stage graduate students receive two years of fellowship support, and as members of the Kavli neuroscience community at JHU, participate in Kavli NDI-supported activities, symposia, workshops, and students/fellows monthly research lunch meetings. 

       

        Kavli NDI DISTINGUISHED GRADUATE STUDENT FELLOWS

      • Abel Cover

        Title: Untangling the spider’s web: a computational approach to the identification of sensorimotor rules underlying web-making

        PI: Andrew Gordus, Department of Biology

        CoPI: Sridevi Sarma, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      • Zhenghan Fang

        Title: Few-Angle Susceptibility Tensor Imaging via Data Driven Image Reconstruction for In Vivo Human Brain Fiber Tracking

        PI: Jeremias Sulam, Biomedical Engineering

        CoPI: Xu Li, Radiology and Radiological Science

      • Ji Young (Julie) Hwang

        Title: Primate social cognition in medial temporal lobe memory

        PI: Ed Connor, Dept of Neuroscience, The Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute

        CoPI: Lydia Hopper, Dept of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology

      • Bharath Krishnan

        Title: Mechanisms governing modulation of path integration gain in the Medial Entorhinal Cortex

        PI: James Knierim, Department of Neuroscience

        CoPI: Noah Cowan, Department of Mechanical Engineering

      • Alina Spiegel

        Title: Local Transcriptional Variation across Subtypes of Cortical Synapses

        PI: Solange Brown, Department of Neuroscience

        CoPI: Loyal Goff, Department of Genetic Medicine &

        Neuroscience

      • Sriram Sudarsanam

        Title: Identification of novel molecular determinants that define cortical neuron subtype morphologies: visualization and analysis at single-neuron resolution

        PI: Alex L. Kolodkin, Department of Neuroscience

        CoPI: Michael I. Miller, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      • Charlie Walters

        Title: Time's form in the hippocampus and its role in temporal decision-making

        PI: Marshall Hussain Shuler, Department of Neuroscience

        CoPI: Vikram Chib, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      • Pum Wiboonsaksakul

        Title: Leveraging the vestibular prosthetic stimulation to understand vestibular coding strategies and internal models of self-motion

        PI: Kathleen Cullen, Department of Biomedical Engineering

        CoPI: Charles Della Santina, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

      • Michael Gregory Tsimmerman Wilkinson

        Title: Bat Wing Hair Airflow Sensing and Somatosensory Response for Robust Flight Control

        PI: Dr. Noah Cowan, Department of Mechanical Engineering

        CoPI: Dr. Cynthia Moss, Department of Psychological and Brain Science

      • Jiali Xiong

        Title:  Molecular and Circuit Mechanisms Mediating the Circadian Regulation of Fear Learning

        PI: Mark Wu, Department of Neurology

        CoPI: Patricia Janak, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

      • Tiger (Yu Kang) Xu

        TITLE: Defining the rules governing myelin patterns and plasticity in the cortex

        PI: Dwight Bergles, Department of Neuroscience

        CoPI: Jeremias Sulam, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      • Ziyi Zhu

        Title: A cortical mechanism for continual, multi-task sensorimotor learning

        PI: Kishore Kuchibhotla, Department of Psychology and Brain Science

        CoPI: Adam Charles, Department of Biomedical Engineering

  • Kavli NDI INCOMING GRADUATE STUDENT FELLOWS Program

    • Kavli NDI recognizes incoming graduate students who demonstrate a particular transdisciplinary interest in neuroscience and engineering or data science to become members of Kavli NDI. These students receive one year of fellowship support, and as members of the Kavli neuroscience community at JHU, participate in Kavli NDI supported activities, symposia, workshops, and students/fellows monthly research lunch meetings. 

  • UNDERGRADUATE SUMMER INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

    • The Kavli NDI Summer Internship Program (SIP) at Johns Hopkins University is a 10-week program that provides experience in research laboratories to students of diverse backgrounds, including underrepresented minority students and students from economically disadvantaged, underserved backgrounds that have completed two or more years of college. 

      In 2023, we hosted two students : Arsh Ali, mentored by Dr. Shreesh Mysore  and Hy Do, mentored by Dr. Seth Blackshaw

  • KAVLI NDI DISTINGUISHED VISITING SCIENTISTS

    • Understanding how the brain harnesses the ability to adapt, learn, and problem solve, whether in early development, through aging or in the face of disease is a challenge that is being tackled by scientists across the globe. The Kavli NDI Visiting Scientist Program was developed to integrate this global community by fostering collaborations between Kavli NDI members and internationally renowned scientists. Visiting scientists are hosted by Kavli NDI to share their expertise and stimulate interdisciplinary scientific interactions that advance our understanding of the structure and function of the brain.

  • Awardee Archive

    2023Open

      Kavli NDI DISTINGUISHED GRADUATE STUDENT FELLOWS

    • Kaitlin Stouffer

      Title: From Tangle to Tissue: Building Mathematical Bridges Between Neurobiology Across Scales for Characterization and Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease

      PI:Michael Miller, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      CoPI: Marilyn Albert, Department of Neurology

    • Kavli NDI INCOMING GRADUATE STUDENT FELLOWS

    • Jade Daher

      Department of Biomedical Engineering

    • Clara Lemaitre

      Department of Biomedical Engineering

    • Christopher Workman

      Department of Biomedical Engineering

    2020Open

      Kavli NDI INCOMING GRADUATE STUDENT FELLOWS

    • Brandon Nanfito

      Department of Neuroscience

    • Kiara Quinn

      Department of Biomedical Engineering

    • Rebekah Yidan Zhang

      Department of Neuroscience

    2019Open

      Kavli NDI INCOMING GRADUATE STUDENT FELLOWS

    • Alina Spiegel

      Department of Neuroscience

    • Yu Kang (Tiger) Xu

      Department of Neuroscience

    • DISTINGUISHED Kavli NDI POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS

    • Celine Drieu, PHD

      Title: Neuronal circuits of context-dependent sensorimotor behavior

      PI: Patricia Janak, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

      CoPI: Joshua T. Vogelstein, Department of Biomedical Engineering

    • Austin Graves, PHD

      Title: Revealing the synaptic encoding of fear learning and memory.

      PI: Richard Huganir, Department of Neuroscience

      Co PI: Joshua Vogelstein, Center for Imaging Science

    • Lukas Mesik, PHD

      Title: Rewiring the cortex with a thalamic prosthesis analog.

      PI: Hey-Kyoung Lee, Department of Neuroscience, Mind Brain Institute

      Co PI: Jin Kang, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    • Genevieve Stein-O'Brien, MHS, PHD

      Title: Modeling the effect of species-specific conservation and spatial organization in scRNAseq of retina development via novel algorithm development, applied analysis, and in situ validation.

      PI: Loyal A. Goff, Department of Neuroscience

      Co PI: Elana Fertig, Department of Oncology, Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics

    2017Open

      DISTINGUISHED Kavli NDI POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS

    • SIMON ALLARD, PHD

      Project: Imaging Cholinergic Fiber Activation.

      PI: Marshall Hussain Shuler, Department of Neuroscience bridged

      Co PI: Michael Miller, Department of Biomedical Engineering 

    • AUDREY BRANCH, PHD

      Project: Three-dimensional analysis of newborn neuron integration in aging.

      PI: Michela Gallagher, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

      Co PI: Joshua Vogelstein, Center for Imaging Science

    • JONATHAN LING, PHD

      Project: Mapping the hidden transcriptome in retinal differentiation.

      PI: Seth Blackshaw, Department of Neuroscience

      Co PI: Jeffrey T. Leek, Department of Biostatistics

      Succeeding position: Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

    • MANU MADHAV, PHD

      Project: Stabilizing the cognitive map with real-time feedback in virtual reality to quantify the influence of optic flow.

      PI: James Knierim, The Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute

      Co PI: Noah Cowan, Department of Mechanical Engineering

      Succeeding position: Assistant Professor, School of Biomedical Engineering, The University of British Columbia

    • BO NING, PHD

      Project: Development of Head-mount Fiber-optic Platform for Two-photon Imaging of Freely Walking Animals.

      PI: Xingde Li, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      Co PI: Dwight Bergles, Department of Neuroscience

      Succeeding position: R&D Staff Engineer, Children's National Medical Center, Washington DC.

    • PIERRE SACRE, PHD

      Project: Neural Correlates During Human Decision-making: The Integration of Rational Reasoning and Internal Biases.

      PI: Sridevi Sarma, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      Co PI: Ernst Niebur, Department of Neuroscience

      Succeeding position: Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science School of Engineering, University of Liège 

    • JANAKA SENARATHNA, PHD

      Project: NeuroSCOPE - A Wireless Miniature Microscope for Brain Imaging in Freely Moving Animals.

      PI: Arvind Pathak, Department of Radiology

      Co PI: Nitish Thakor, Department of Biomedical Engineering

    • XINDONG SONG, PHD

      Project: Chronic Calcium Imaging of Auditory Cortical Neurons in Awake Marmosets with Quiet Two-Photon Microscopy and a Scalable Data Workflow.

      PI: Xiaoqin Wang, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      Co PIs: Randal Burns, Department of Computer Science

    • DANIEL TWARD, PHD

      Project: MR Micro Imaging and Three Dimensional Histology: INtegrating Neuroimaging Data Across Scales.

      PI: Michael Miller, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      Co PI: Juan Troncoso, Department of Pathology, Division of Neuropathology

      Succeeding position: Assistant Professor, Departments of Neurology and Computational Medicine, UCLA Brain Mapping Center 

    • KAVLI NDI DISTINGUISHED VISITING SCIENTISTS

    • JUAN GOUTMAN, PHD

      INGEBI CONICET, Universidad de Buenos Aires

      Hosted by: Paul Fuchs, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

      Project: Structure and function analyses of how calcium influx, endoplasmic storage and release may contribute to synaptic function.

    • MENACHEM HANANI, PHD

      Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School

      Hosted by: Xinzhong Dong, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience

      Project: Advanced methods to determine glial cells influence on nerves, pain transmission and sensation.

    • MENNO WITTER, PHD

      Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience/ Centre for Neural - NTNU

      Hosted by: Michael Miller, Johns Hopkins University, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      Project: Development of a common representation of structural data on animal models, AD patients, and healthy humans focusing on the entorhinal-hippocampal system

    Kavli NDI DISTINGUISHED GRADUATE STUDENT FELLOWSOpen

      2023

    • Kaitlin Stouffer

      Title: From Tangle to Tissue: Building Mathematical Bridges Between Neurobiology Across Scales for Characterization and Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease

      PI:Michael Miller, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      CoPI: Marilyn Albert, Department of Neurology

    Kavli NDI INCOMING GRADUATE STUDENT FELLOWSOpen

      2023

    • Jade Daher

      Department of Biomedical Engineering

    • Clara Lemaitre

      Department of Biomedical Engineering

    • Christopher Workman

      Department of Biomedical Engineering

    • 2020

    • Brandon Nanfito

      Department of Neuroscience

    • Kiara Quinn

      Department of Biomedical Engineering

    • Rebekah Yidan Zhang

      Department of Neuroscience

    • 2019

    • Alina Spiegel

      Department of Neuroscience

    • Yu Kang (Tiger) Xu

      Department of Neuroscience

    DISTINGUISHED Kavli NDI POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSOpen

      2019

    • Celine Drieu, PHD

      Title: Neuronal circuits of context-dependent sensorimotor behavior

      PI: Patricia Janak, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

      CoPI: Joshua T. Vogelstein, Department of Biomedical Engineering

    • Austin Graves, PHD

      Title: Revealing the synaptic encoding of fear learning and memory.

      PI: Richard Huganir, Department of Neuroscience

      Co PI: Joshua Vogelstein, Center for Imaging Science

    • Lukas Mesik, PHD

      Title: Rewiring the cortex with a thalamic prosthesis analog.

      PI: Hey-Kyoung Lee, Department of Neuroscience, Mind Brain Institute

      Co PI: Jin Kang, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    • Genevieve Stein-O'Brien, MHS, PHD

      Title: Modeling the effect of species-specific conservation and spatial organization in scRNAseq of retina development via novel algorithm development, applied analysis, and in situ validation.

      PI: Loyal A. Goff, Department of Neuroscience

      Co PI: Elana Fertig, Department of Oncology, Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics

    • 2017

    • SIMON ALLARD, PHD

      Project: Imaging Cholinergic Fiber Activation.

      PI: Marshall Hussain Shuler, Department of Neuroscience bridged

      Co PI: Michael Miller, Department of Biomedical Engineering 

    • AUDREY BRANCH, PHD

      Project: Three-dimensional analysis of newborn neuron integration in aging.

      PI: Michela Gallagher, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

      Co PI: Joshua Vogelstein, Center for Imaging Science

    • JONATHAN LING, PHD

      Project: Mapping the hidden transcriptome in retinal differentiation.

      PI: Seth Blackshaw, Department of Neuroscience

      Co PI: Jeffrey T. Leek, Department of Biostatistics

      Succeeding position: Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

    • MANU MADHAV, PHD

      Project: Stabilizing the cognitive map with real-time feedback in virtual reality to quantify the influence of optic flow.

      PI: James Knierim, The Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute

      Co PI: Noah Cowan, Department of Mechanical Engineering

      Succeeding position: Assistant Professor, School of Biomedical Engineering, The University of British Columbia

    • BO NING, PHD

      Project: Development of Head-mount Fiber-optic Platform for Two-photon Imaging of Freely Walking Animals.

      PI: Xingde Li, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      Co PI: Dwight Bergles, Department of Neuroscience

      Succeeding position: R&D Staff Engineer, Children's National Medical Center, Washington DC.

    • PIERRE SACRE, PHD

      Project: Neural Correlates During Human Decision-making: The Integration of Rational Reasoning and Internal Biases.

      PI: Sridevi Sarma, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      Co PI: Ernst Niebur, Department of Neuroscience

      Succeeding position: Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science School of Engineering, University of Liège 

    • JANAKA SENARATHNA, PHD

      Project: NeuroSCOPE - A Wireless Miniature Microscope for Brain Imaging in Freely Moving Animals.

      PI: Arvind Pathak, Department of Radiology

      Co PI: Nitish Thakor, Department of Biomedical Engineering

    • XINDONG SONG, PHD

      Project: Chronic Calcium Imaging of Auditory Cortical Neurons in Awake Marmosets with Quiet Two-Photon Microscopy and a Scalable Data Workflow.

      PI: Xiaoqin Wang, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      Co PIs: Randal Burns, Department of Computer Science

    • DANIEL TWARD, PHD

      Project: MR Micro Imaging and Three Dimensional Histology: INtegrating Neuroimaging Data Across Scales.

      PI: Michael Miller, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      Co PI: Juan Troncoso, Department of Pathology, Division of Neuropathology

      Succeeding position: Assistant Professor, Departments of Neurology and Computational Medicine, UCLA Brain Mapping Center 

    KAVLI NDI DISTINGUISHED VISITING SCIENTISTSOpen

      2017

    • JUAN GOUTMAN, PHD

      INGEBI CONICET, Universidad de Buenos Aires

      Hosted by: Paul Fuchs, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

      Project: Structure and function analyses of how calcium influx, endoplasmic storage and release may contribute to synaptic function.

    • MENACHEM HANANI, PHD

      Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School

      Hosted by: Xinzhong Dong, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience

      Project: Advanced methods to determine glial cells influence on nerves, pain transmission and sensation.

    • MENNO WITTER, PHD

      Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience/ Centre for Neural - NTNU

      Hosted by: Michael Miller, Johns Hopkins University, Department of Biomedical Engineering

      Project: Development of a common representation of structural data on animal models, AD patients, and healthy humans focusing on the entorhinal-hippocampal system

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