Kim Stachenfeld.

Kim Stachenfeld

Staff research scientist, Google DeepMind
Adjunct assistant professor, Columbia University

Kim Stachenfeld is staff research scientist at Google DeepMind and adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University’s Center for Theoretical Neuroscience. Her research bridges neuroscience and artificial intelligence, focusing on AI-inspired models of neural computation and the use of AI tools to understand brain data.

Stachenfeld earned her Ph.D. in computational neuroscience from Princeton University in 2018 and a B.S. in chemical and biological engineering and B.A. in mathematics from Tufts University in 2013. Her work has been featured in The Atlantic, Quanta Magazine, Nautilus and MIT Technology Review. In 2019, she was recognized by MIT Technology Review as one of its Innovators Under 35 for her research on predictive representations in the hippocampus.

Explore more from The Transmitter

Research image of lesion network mapping.
Brain imaging

‘Overdue’ debate unfurls over neuroimaging method

After a January paper questioned the validity of an approach called lesion network mapping, its users are pressure testing their results.

By Angie Voyles Askham
17 April 2026 | 8 min read
Research image of zebrafish brain activity.
Spectrum Microphone

Nearly 400 compounds affect behaviors tied to autism-linked genes in zebrafish

Estropipate, paclitaxel and levocarnitine altered behaviors tied to SCN2A and DYRK1A variants specifically, a new open-source platform revealed.

By Charles Q. Choi
16 April 2026 | 4 min read
NINDS building.
Policy

What neuroscientists want from a new NINDS director

The search is underway for the next director of the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, who will face a range of challenges, neuroscientists say, but will also have an “immense opportunity to do good things.”

By Helena Kudiabor
15 April 2026 | 4 min read