I am a fourth-year PhD student in the Neurobiology program at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). My advisor is Prof. Markus Meister. I am interested in cognitive flexibility, learning and memory. I investigate the role of cortex and hippocampus in these functions – in a non-traditional way :) Currently my main project is titled “Mice in the Manhattan Maze,” which features a novel reconfigurable maze for studying rapid learning and flexible routing.

I was the teaching assistant for CNS187 Neural Computation for two years, a graduate-level course requirement for students in Computation and Neural System. I am currently the president of the Neurotechers (23-24), the official club for Caltech graduate students in neuroscience.

Prior to Caltech, I did my undergraduate studies at Cornell University (B.S. in Biological Engineering) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (B.Eng. in Food Science and Engineering). I then obtained a Master’s degree (M.Phil) in Education and Psychology at the University of Cambridge.

News

2023/12/19 - With Hristos Courellis from Adolphs and Rutishauser Lab, I won the 2024 Chen Innovator Grant for an independent project by graduate students. We will report our results in 2025.

2023/09/26 - I am the president of the NeuroTechers for this academic year (2023-2024).

2023/06/12 - I am featured in two articles in the Best in Class series on Caltech Magazine’s June Issue! See the two articles here: SoCaltech and Best in Class

2023/05/24 - I won the travel award and presented our latest work on the Manhattan Maze Project at the Curiosity, Creativity and Complexity 2023 Conference. You may find the abstract via the website.

2023/04/11 - I received the 2023 Chen Institute Diversity and Inclusion Grant Award.

2023/03/22 - I am officially a Ph.D. candidate!

2022/11/13 - With Rogério Guimarães, I presented a poster of the Manhattan Maze project at SfN 2022, titled “Mice in Manhattan: Mastering and Memorizing Multiple Maps of a Massively Modifiable Maze in Minutes.”

2022/07/15 - I completed the (inaugural) Data Science and AI for Neuroscience summer school, at the Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech.

2022/05/13 - I presented a poster of our current work on the Manhattan Maze at the Chen Institute Retreat. The project is in collaboration with Rogério Guimarães, and advised by Prof. Pietro Perona and Prof. Markus Meister.

2022/02/09 - I was elected as the Academic co-chair of the Neurotechers, club for graduate students in neuroscience at Caltech. Together with Laura Luebbert, I will host the famous “fireside chats” (also called “Ask Me Anything”) that invite faculty members in neuroscience to talk to graduate students at Caltech.