Introducing Wu Tsai Neuro’s 2021 Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellows

By Nicholas Weiler

We are pleased to announce our new class of Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellows in the neurosciences, including our first-ever Wu Tsai Neuro Interdisciplinary Graduate Program Fellow.

Wu Tsai Neuro awards Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowships (SIGFs) in neuroscience in partnership with the Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Stanford Bio-X. This year, we have also awarded the inaugural fellowship in our new Wu Tsai Neuro Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, which we plan to expand in coming years.
 
These fellowships provide current graduate students with three years of funding support for innovative interdisciplinary research that embodies the mission of the Institute. We look forward to seeing all they will accomplish!

Learn more about our Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowships

Erin Kunz

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute Interdisciplinary Graduate Program Fellow (Anonymous Donor)
Department of Electrical Engineering 

Research Project: Design and development of a high-performance intra-cortical speech BCI

Primary Advisor: Krishna Shenoy (Electrical Engineering)
Co-Advisor: Scott Linderman (Statistics)

Erin is analyzing the mechanisms underlying speech production in order to improve brain-computer interfaces that help people with speech impairments communicate.

Tamara Chan

Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow, affiliated with the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neurosciences Interdepartmental Program

Research Project: Elucidating mechanisms of microglial tiling

Primary Advisor: Marius Wernig (Pathology)
Co-Advisor: Liqun Luo (Biology)

Tamara is exploring how homeostatic microglia homogenously organize in a grid-like fashion to achieve efficient surveillance of the brain.

Kyrstyn Ong

Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow, affiliated with the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research Project: Nanoscale to circuit-level computational and experimental studies of the biophysical mechanism of ultrasound-mediated mechanical neurostimulation

Primary Advisor: Stephen Baccus (Neurobiology)
Co-Advisors: Evan Reed (Material Science) and Merritt Maduke (Molecular and Cellular Physiology)

Kyrstyn seeks to understand the biophysical mechanisms of ultrasound-mediated mechanical neurostimulation using simulations, machine learning, and in vitro experiments.

Yixiu Zhao

Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow, affiliated with the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Department of Applied Physics

Research Project: Inference via Abstraction: A framework for efficient Bayesian cognition

Primary Advisor: Scott Linderman (Statistics) 
Co-Advisor: Tobias Gerstenberg (Psychology)

Yixiu is developing a novel framework for efficient Bayesian cognition, and will test it as a model of human inference using behavioral and neural measurements.