Simons Foundation Announces 13 Recipients of 2023 Independence Awards

The Simons Foundation is pleased to announce this year’s recipients of its prestigious independence awards. The 13 fellows will receive support as they transition from mentored training to independent research positions.

Each fellow will receive up to two years of postdoctoral support with an annual salary of $85,000, plus a yearly resource and professional development allowance of $10,000. Upon assumption of an approved tenure-track faculty position, fellows will receive grant funding of $600,000 total over three years.

The three independence award programs are provided through the Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain (SCGB), the Simons Collaboration on Plasticity and the Aging Brain (SCPAB) and the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI).

The programs share the goal of engaging fellows in the transition to research independence. During the application period for this year’s fellowships, the programs emphasized different scientific missions and eligibility criteria.

The Transition to Independence (TTI) Awards offered through the SCGB and the SCPAB support researchers working on important topics in neuroscience. The SCGB TTI awards are for researchers investigating large-scale circuits at single-cell resolution to understand neural coding and dynamics, while the SCPAB TTI awards focus on the neuroscience of cognitive aging in the absence of disease. Both programs were open to individuals from gender, racial, ethnic and other groups underrepresented in neuroscience, including individuals with disabilities and individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The SFARI Bridge to Independence (BTI) Award welcomed applicants addressing the full breadth of autism science that SFARI typically supports, including genetics, molecular mechanisms, circuits and systems, and clinical science. The award was open to scientists working in the autism field and those newly applying their approaches to autism research. SFARI encouraged applicants from historically underrepresented or excluded groups to apply.

The fellows from all three programs will join 57 previous awardees as part of a learning community, engaging in professional development and community-building activities. Fellows will participate in workshops, meet with an assigned external mentor, receive support from Simons Foundation scientists and staff, and attend in-person Simons Foundation investigator meetings and Independence Award retreats.

The application period for the 2024 independence awards will open on October 10, 2023. For more information about the awards, visit the Simons Foundation Independence Awards information page.

Chinyere Agbaegbu Iweka, Ph.D.
Stanford University
SCPAB TTI Fellow
Project: Circadian regulation of immune cell metabolism and the effect on cognitive flexibility in the aging brain

Ryan Ash, M.D., Ph.D.
Stanford University
SFARI BTI Fellow
Project: Noninvasive focal closed-loop deep brain neuromodulation with transcranial ultrasound and source-localized electroencephalography for the treatment of behavioral inflexibility in autism

Bianca Cotto, Ph.D.
Rockefeller University
SCPAB TTI Fellow
Project: Cell-type-specific approach for mitochondrial profiling toward understanding the aging brain

Marito Hayashi, Ph.D.
Harvard University
SFARI BTI Fellow
Project: Gut-brain communication and sensory processing in autism

Elizabeth Haynes, Ph.D.
Morgridge Institute for Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison
SCPAB TTI Fellow
Project: Characterizing aging microglia and their ecosystem using multiscale imaging

Ugne Klibaite, Ph.D.
Harvard University
SFARI BTI Fellow
Project: The emergence of social deficits in rat models of autism

Francesca Mastrogiuseppe, Ph.D.
Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown
SCGB TTI Fellow
Project: Mechanisms of learning and computations in cortical neural networks

Daniel O’Shea, Ph.D.
Stanford University
SFARI BTI Fellow
Project: Precise characterization of computational deficits in motor cognition in autism via corticocerebellar perturbations

Daniel Pederick, Ph.D.
Stanford University
SFARI BTI Fellow
Project: Investigating tonotopy in autism

Greta Pintacuda, D.Phil.
Broad Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
SFARI BTI Fellow
Project: An iPSC-based platform for the discovery and functional characterization of novel master regulators of autism-associated genes in the developing brain

Lindsey Salay, Ph.D.
California Institute of Technology
SCGB TTI Fellow
Project: Sensory-motor transformations in innate emotional behaviors

Menglong Zeng, Ph.D.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
SFARI BTI Fellow
Project: Characterizing the molecular architecture of excitatory synapses onto GABAergic interneurons

Ipshita Zutshi, Ph.D.
New York University School of Medicine
SCGB TTI Fellow
Project: Transformation of sensory signals to internal representations