Xiaolin Chou, PostDoc in Liu Lab, Wins 2022 UTM Postdoctoral Fellowship Award

UTM OVPR announced that Dr. Xiaolin Chou, Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Baohua Liu's Lab has won a 2022 UTM Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. The UTM Research Council, with a final determination by the Vice-Principal Research, the Associate Vice-Principal, Research, the Vice-Principal Academic and Dean, and the Vice-President and Principal, ranked Dr. Chou's application as topmost in a very strong applicant pool.

"My research will focus on the neural mechanisms underlying contextual modulation of visual processing. In our daily life, visual perceptions are often affected by various surrounding contexts, but the neural circuits underlying this important brain function is still largely unclear. With this PDF, I would like to illustrate a novel midbrain circuit for the modulation of visual saliency by background motion, involving two important visual structures, the complex of nucleus of optic tract and dorsal terminal nucleus (NOT-DTN) to the superior colliculus (SC). The major goal is to gain a mechanistic understanding of the principles governing the contextual modulation of visual processing.

I am greatly honoured to win this award, and it will tremendously help me to achieve my research goal and advance my career as a young researcher. This award will provide me lots of necessary resources for the proposed research and make me more focused on solving the scientific questions and exploring all kinds of possibilities. In addition, winning this award will also significantly booster my self confidence, and I am now more determined to pursue a scientific career. To sum up, I am truly grateful to have this award and appreciate this fantastic opportunity to fulfill my research goal as well as to develop a promising research career." declared Dr. Chou.

Congratulations! We are looking forward to the contributions to your research program that will result from this award.