New Cohort of Postdoctoral Scholars Announced by Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind

KIBM 2026-2027 postdoctoral scholars (from left) Pingchuan Ma, Shingo Hiroki and Eileen Chen.

The fifth cohort of postdoctoral scholars has been selected by UC San Diego’s Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind (KIBM), whose mission is to bridge disciplinary boundaries to further our understanding of the origins, evolution and mechanisms of human cognition.

Jointly directed by Yishi Jin (UC San Diego Department of Neurobiology, School of Biological Sciences) and Ed Callaway (Salk Institute), KIBM supports innovative research through grants to teams of investigators working on problems at the boundaries of our current knowledge about the brain and mind.

The KIBM Postdoctoral Scholars Program provides financial support and networking opportunities for exceptional postdoctoral scholars at UC San Diego and the Salk Institute to pursue innovative research in neuroscience. Postdoctoral scholars receive $50,000 for 12 months (renewable for a second year contingent upon progress and the faculty mentor’s continued sponsorship). Scholars present their research at the annual KIBM Symposium on Innovative Research, which was held this year on May 29.

Meet the 2026-2027 KIBM Postdoctoral Scholars

Eileen Chen

Eileen Chen is a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Susan Ackerman’s lab in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine (School of Medicine) and Department of Neurobiology (School of Biological Sciences). She received her PhD in 2024 from Baylor College of Medicine, where she focused on determining the molecular mechanisms of a pediatric brain tumor and identified the crosstalk between histone modification, developmental transcription factor and the tumor microenvironment. Her research interest lies in the complex interplay between epigenetic, transcriptional and translational regulation in both neurodevelopment and neurodegenerative diseases. Chen’s current postdoctoral training explores the role of transfer RNA (tRNA) deficiency in mediating translational control and regulating microglial functions during brain development and neuroinflammation.

Shingo Hiroki

Shingo Hiroki is a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Komiyama’s laboratory in the Department of Neurobiology (School of Biological Sciences). He received his PhD in 2022 from the University of Tokyo, where he used a combination of molecular biology, genetics, imaging and electrophysiology to study gustatory learning in C. elegans and discovered a new form of synaptic plasticity. In his postdoctoral research, Hiroki uses cutting-edge optogenetics to induce plasticity between individual pairs of neurons in awake mice. His long-term goal is to establish a causal approach to investigating the neural plasticity rule in vivo.

Pingchuan Ma

Pingchuan Ma is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Salk Institute Fellow Adam Bowman. Ma received his PhD from Washington University in St. Louis, where he applied fluorescence lifetime imaging technology to study the dynamics of neuromodulators and intracellular neurochemical signals in the brain. For his postdoctoral training, he is working at the interface of fluorescent imaging method development and neurobiology studies. Co-advised by Professor Ed Callaway, Ma is interested in applying voltage imaging to study the interneuron-pyramidal neuron interactions in visual circuits.