Liqun Luo

Dr. Luo grew up in Shanghai, China, and earned his bachelor's degree in molecular biology from the University of Science and Technology of China. After obtaining his Ph.D. in Brandeis University, and postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Luo started his own lab in the Department of Biology, Stanford University in December 1996. Together with his postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, Dr. Luo studies how neural circuits are organized to perform specific functions in adults, and how they are assembled during development. Dr. Luo is currently the Ann and Bill Swindells Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Professor of Biology, and Professor of Neurobiology by courtesy at Stanford University, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He teaches neurobiology to Stanford undergraduate and graduate students. His single-author textbook “Principles of Neurobiology” (1st edition 2015; 2nd edition 2020) is widely used for undergraduate and graduate courses across the world.

Dr. Luo has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including Neuron, eLife, and Annual Review of Neuroscience, Cell, and PNAS. He has also served on the Pew Scholar National Committee and Scientific Advisory Committee of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. He is the recipient of the McKnight Technological Innovation in Neuroscience Award, the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award, the Jacob Javits Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the HW Mossman Award from the American Association of Anatomists, the Lawrence Katz Prize, and the Pradel Award of National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Luo is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.