Our Faculty
Meet the distinguished researchers and educators leading our consortium, bringing expertise from diverse areas of neuroscience.
Sze Chai Kwok
Specialization in Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognition, Episodic Memory
DPhil. University of Oxford
Kwok’s research lies at the intersection among neuroscience, behavior, and psychology. He is head of the Laboratory of Phylo-Cognition and his research team studies the neural bases of episodic memory, metacognition, and other related higher cognitive processes in the primate species. Elucidation of such intricate brain/mind/behavior relationships is attained by armamentaria of methods including multimodal neuroimaging, in vivo electrophysiology, neuromodulatory methods, state-of-the-art behavioral paradigms and computational techniques. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include topics within cognitive neuroscience, behavioral sciences, and psychology. He is author of 50 academic papers including several in leading high-impact journals such as Science, Neuron, eLife, the Journal of Neuroscience, and Nature Human Behaviour. He is awardee of the Jiangsu 333 Talent Program (2024), Kunshan Shortage Talent Program (2023), Jiangsu Qinglan Award (2021), Young IBRO Regions Connecting Award (2020), and the Shanghai Pujiang Talent Program Award (2016). He serves as handling editor for the journal Cognitive Processing (Springer). Kwok has a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from the University of Hong Kong and a doctoral degree in experimental psychology from the University of Oxford. Before joining Duke Kunshan in 2020, he was associate professor at East China Normal University and held a scholar-in-residence adjunct position at NYU Shanghai.
szechai.kwok@duke.edu
Shu Kit Eric Tam
Specialization in Behavioral Neuroscience
Ph.D. from Univeristy of Nottingham
Tam received his PhD in behavioral neuroscience from the University of Nottingham, where he investigated the role of the hippocampus in interval timing. After completing his PhD in 2011, he worked as a postdoctoral neuroscientist at the University of Oxford until 2023. His postdoctoral research focused primarily on the regulation of behavior by light and biological clocks. In 2023, He joined Duke Kunshan University as an assistant professor of neuroscience. Some of his ongoing research aims to understand the reinforcing properties of light and its relevance to behavioral addiction.
shukiteric.tam@dukekunshan.edu.cn
Shan Wang
Specialization in Cognitive Psychology, Perception and Action
Ph.D. from University of Bath
Shan’s research lies in human perception and action, focusing on the perception and communication of pain and movement control and planning. Shan received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Bath in 2017. Before joining DKU in 2019, Shan completed her postdoctoral research at Oxford Brookes University. In 2020, Shan received Jiangsu Shuangchuang Talent Prestigious Ph.D. Award.
shan.wang579@dukekunshan.edu.cn
Chia-Chien Eric Chen
Specialization in Systems and Circuit Neuroscience, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Developmental Neuroscience
Ph.D. from City University of New York
Chen received his PhD in Neuropsychology from City University of New York, where he investigated how sensory deprivation alters synaptic and structural development in cortical neurons. He then spent 6.5 years as a postdoctoral scholar and project scientist ay the University of California, Santa Cruz, focusing on the role of Nogo-A in restricting neuronal growth, and the effects of stress on synaptic function and proceptual processing. He joined DKU as an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience in 2021. His current research explores how microglia modulate experience-dependent circuit remodeling in the cerebral cortex, and how these cellular mechanisms influence cognitive functions such as memory and perception.
chiachien.chen@dukekunshan.edu.cn
