Jeansok Kim

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About

Jeansok Kim is a leading neuroscientist whose research bridges the amygdala, hippocampus, and the neural mechanisms of fear and memory. His work has fundamentally shaped our understanding of how the brain encodes and retrieves emotionally charged experiences, particularly fear-related memories. Kim’s most influential contributions include elucidating the role of the amygdala in fear conditioning and demonstrating how hippocampal–amygdala interactions create a "fearful-place" code—a neural representation that links spatial context with emotional salience. His 2020 paper on this topic, though recent, has already garnered significant attention for its innovative use of in vivo electrophysiology and optogenetics. With over 6,000 citations across his career, Kim’s research has been pivotal in advancing models of anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder. He is also recognized for his seminal work on the role of the hippocampus in contextual fear conditioning, which has become a cornerstone of modern memory research. A recipient of multiple NIH grants and the McKnight Scholar Award, Kim continues to inspire students and researchers with his rigorous, integrative approach to understanding the emotional brain.