Our Team
Matt Lovett-Barron
Matt received his BSc from Queen’s University in Canada (2009), his PhD in Neurobiology from Columbia University (2014), and was a postdoctoral fellow with Karl Deisseroth at Stanford University.
Matt joined UCSD in 2020, and has been making aquatic friends ever since.
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Postdoctoral Fellows
Katie Martin, PhD
Katie got her PhD from New York University, where she studied auditory perceptual learning and neuromodulation in Rob Froemke’s lab. As a postdoc, she plans to study the influence of hunger on sensory-motor behaviors in larval zebrafish. Outside of lab, Katie enjoys throwing pottery, playing volleyball and has a newfound passion for pickleball.
Katie is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation
Geoff Meyerhof, PhD
Geoff received his PhD from UC Santa Barbara in 2024, where he studied sensory biology in the fruit fly and mosquito. Prior to that, he worked at the Buck Institute studying the impact of aging on the eye. As a postdoc, Geoff is interested in identifying the genes and neurons required for schooling behavior in Danionella cerebrum. He is happy to be working with friendly fish that do not want to bite him.
Doctoral Students
Grace Padilla - Neuroscience PhD student
Originally hailing from Arizona, Grace graduated from Westminster College in Salt Lake City with a BS in Neuroscience in 2020. Her research interests predominantly consist of studying the neural circuitry by which organisms use sensory information to guide their behavior and how internal states modulate these responses. Her interests outside of academia include almost anything that takes you outside, swing dancing, and preforming music.
Grace is a NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Jo-Hsien Yu - Biology PhD student
Jo-Hsien is from Taipei, Taiwan, where she graduated with B.S. from National Taiwan University in 2018. She worked with túngara frogs at UNC-Chapel Hill, and studied neural circuits of light-modulated social behavior in mice at NTU before moving to San Diego in 2020. Joining Lovett-Barron Lab in 2021, she's learning new topics and making friends both in the lab and out under the sun.
Jo-Hsien is a J. Yang Scholar
Julia Napoli - Biology PhD student
Julia is originally from the SF Bay Area. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a concentration in math from Boston College in 2019. Following graduation, she worked as a postbaccalaureate fellow at the NIH studying neural correlates of decision-making in non-human primates. She moved to San Diego and joined the lab in 2022 where she will be working on visual attention to social cues in Danionella. Outside of the lab, she enjoys roller skating, visits to the farmer’s market, and a perfectly ripe avocado.
Julia is an NIH T32 trainee in the Pathways in Biological Science (PiBS)
Jennifer Swindlehurst Chan - Biology PhD student
Originally from San Diego, Jennifer went to school in Connecticut at Wesleyan University, where she received her B.A. in Neuroscience & Behavior and Biology in 2018. After graduating, she worked as a research specialist at UCSF and went on to join the Lovett-Barron Lab as a research technician in 2020. In 2022 she joined the lab as a PhD student, and making lots of fish friends in the lab.
Jen is a NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Research Technicians
Jimjohn (Jj) Milan - Staff
Research Associate
Jimjohn is from Cebu, Philippines and moved to California, where he graduated from UCSD / Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) with a B.S. and M.S. in Marine Biology. During his time at SIO, he studied the evolutionary development of aggressive display behavior in Sarcastic Fringeheads (Neoclinus blanchardi) and Longjaw Mudsuckers (Gillichthys mirabilis). Joining the Lovett-Barron Lab in 2023, he's excited to expand his studies on fish social behavior, particularly schooling. Outside of lab, he enjoys spending some time in the ocean either snorkeling or SCUBA diving.
Evelyn Dean - Lab
Research Assistant
Evelyn graduated from UCSD with a B.S. in Molecular & Cell Biology in 2024. After volunteering in the lab as an undergraduate, she joined the Lovett-Barron lab as a research technician. While in the lab, she will continue to investigate larval zebrafish hunting behavior and broaden her experience with molecular techniques. In her free time, she enjoys painting landscapes and being outside.
Alums
Princess Tarabishi - Staff Research Associate (2020-2023) - Neuroscience PhD Student, University of Washington
Lisanne Schulze - Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2024) - Sorbonne University
David Zada - Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2024) - Bar-Ilan University
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Join the shoal!
Contact Matt for more information about open positions in the lab