Rate My Professor Joon Kim

Dr Joon Kim is a Lecturer in the Department of Physiology within the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Otago. He completed his BSc, PGDipSci, and PhD in Neuroendocrinology at the University of Otago, graduating in 2016 with a thesis on the functional analyses of the neuropeptide FF receptor system. Following his PhD, Kim received the Wrightson Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand in 2018 to investigate how stress-responsive neurons in the hypothalamus regulate risk assessment behaviours. He advanced to Research Fellow in the Department of Physiology, working in Dr Karl Iremonger's laboratory, before establishing the Joon Kim Laboratory in the Centre for Neuroendocrinology, where he now serves as Principal Investigator.

Specializing in behavioural neuroscience, Kim's research examines neural pathways linking internal states to behaviour, focusing on circuits mediating stress, anxiety, motivation, and aversive responses. Current projects address how stress induces anxiety, conflicting motivations in behaviour selection, and negative states promoting aversion. Utilizing cutting-edge methods including fibre photometry—which he introduced to New Zealand and made open-source for international use—optogenetics, chemogenetics, brain slice electrophysiology, imaging, and behavioural paradigms, his work has significantly impacted understanding of stress-related neural dynamics. Key publications include 'Ultradian rhythms of CRH PVN neuron activity, behaviour and stress hormone secretion' (2024, with C.H. Brown), 'Regulation of corticotropin-releasing hormone neuronal network activity by noradrenergic stress signals' (2022), 'Cannabinoid and vanilloid pathways mediate opposing forms of synaptic plasticity in corticotropin-releasing hormone neurons' (2022), 'Anti-opioid effects of RFRP-3 on magnocellular neuron activity in morphine-naïve and morphine-treated female rats' (Endocrinology, 2016), and 'Anxiogenic and stressor effects of the hypothalamic neuropeptide RFRP-3' (Endocrinology, 2015). Kim has secured Marsden Fund grants, including a $360,000 award in 2021, and received the University of Otago Early Career Award for Distinction in Research, along with the Physiological Society of New Zealand New & Emerging Researcher Award in 2021. His contributions include novel behavioural tests and tools advancing global research on anxiety and stress disorders.