Karla Kaun
Karla R. Kaun is a Canadian/American behavioral neurogeneticist and an associate professor of neuroscience at Brown University, where she is principal investigator of a laboratory that studies the Behavioral Neurogenetics of Addiction. Kaun investigates the neural and molecular mechanisms of addiction and reward using fruit flies, as a model.
Education and career
Kaun obtained her BSc in biopsychology at the University of British Columbia in 2003 and her the PhD in 2007 at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Marla Sokolowski. She followed up with postdoctoral training with Ulrike Heberlein. In 2013 she was recruited as an assistant professor at Brown University; she was promoted to associate professor in 2020., Kaun has published over 40 articles that have been cited over 2800 times, giving her an h-index of 25.Kaun is an advocate for science communication and mental health research. In 2015 she was named the Robert J and Nancy D Carney Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, and in 2018 she was an Genetics Society Early Career Achievement awardee. In 2023 Kaun was awarded the Genetics Education Award by the National Association of Biology Teachers, and in 2023-24 she was President of the International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society. Kaun is currently an Associate Editor for the Neurogenetics and Behavior section of the Genetics Society of America flagship scientific publication ''Genetics.''