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Curriculum Vitae of Jea (Jay) Kwon

General Information

Name Jea (Jay) Kwon
Position Postdoctoral Researcher
Affiliation Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP), Bochum, Germany
Email onlytojay@gmail.com

Research Areas

  • NeuroAI: Neuroscience for AI (NeurIPS2023, ICLR2025), AI for Neuroscience (IJCV2024, Exp.Mol.Med.2026)
  • Trustworthy AI: AI Interpretability (ICML2026 Spotlight), AI Alignment (AAAI2026, ACL2026-f)

Professional Experience

  • 2024 - Present
    Postdoctoral Researcher in Trustworthy AI
    Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP), Bochum, Germany
    • Advisor: Meeyoung Cha
  • 2022 - 2024
    Postdoctoral Researcher in NeuroAI
    Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Daejeon, South Korea
  • 2018 - 2020
    Researcher in Neuroscience
    Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Daejeon, South Korea
  • 2014 - 2018
    Student Researcher
    Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, South Korea

Education

  • 2014 - 2022
    Ph.D. in Nano-Bio-Information-Technology
    Korea University, Seoul, South Korea
    • Advisor: C. Justin Lee
    • Full-Ride Scholarship, KU-KIST Graduate School
  • 2008 - 2012
    B.E. in Electrical and Electronic System
    Saitama University, Saitama, Japan
    • Full-Ride Scholarship, Korea-Japan Governments Joint Scholarship Program

Achievements

  • 2026
    Seal of Excellence — MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025
    European Commission, Horizon Europe (HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF-01-01)
    • Proposal 101286042 — TRACE: Towards Reliable AI through Cognitive Engrams (with Max-Planck-Gesellschaft), total score 89.40%
  • 2023
    Excellent Paper Award
    Korean Artificial Intelligence Association (JKAIA)
    • Brain-inspired Lp-Convolution benefits large kernels and aligns better with visual cortex
  • 2023
    Patent Application & Technology Transfer
    Application Number: 10-2023-0027219
    • Device and Method for Classification of Human and Animal Behavior, Patent Contribution=35%
    • Finalized a technology transfer with ACTNOVA Inc.
  • 2022
    Best Presentation Award
    Korean Society for Brain and Neural Sciences (KSBNS)
    • ABCD-analysis: Mapping animal behavior and differential analysis of kinematic features without selection bias
  • 2022
    Young Investigator Award
    Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology (KSMCB)
    • Retina-attached slice recording reveals light-triggered tonic GABA signaling in suprachiasmatic nucleus
  • 2021
    Best Poster Award
    Center for Cognition and Sociality (CCS) Workshop
    • Mapping Behavior with DECLARE: Deep Embedded Clustering of Action REpresentation

Talks

  • 2026
    AI Engram: In Search of Memory Traces in Artificial Neural Networks
    Scalable Trustworthy AI (STAI) group - KAIST
    • (Invited Seminar, In person, invited by Seong Joon Oh)
  • 2026
    AI Engram: In Search of Memory Traces in Artificial Neural Networks
    Max Planck Institute for Software Systems
    • (Invited Seminar, In person, invited by Krishna Gummadi)
  • 2026
    AI Engram: In Search of Memory Traces in Artificial Neural Networks
    Spark(l)ing Science - Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy
    • (Seminar, In person)
  • 2025
    How neuroscience can benefit AI
    KAIST BK21 IBS Symposium - Integrated Neuroscience and Physiology
    • (Invited Seminar, In person, invited by Greg Suh)
  • 2025
    Transformer as a Hippocampal Memory Consolidation Model based on NMDAR-inspired Nonlinearity
    KSBNS Symposium
    • (Invited Seminar, In person)
  • 2025
    Sovereign AI: K-AI as an opportunity
    Netzwerk Junge Generation Deutschland-Korea
    • (Public Lecture, In person, invited by Muhong Lee)
  • 2025
    Brain-inspired AI
    Institute for Basic Science (IBS)
    • (Invited Seminar, In person, invited by C. Justin Lee)
  • 2025
    Brain-inspired AI
    Korea Brain Research Institute (KBRI)
    • (Invited Seminar, In person, invited by Jeongyeon Kim)
  • 2025
    Brain-inspired AI
    Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST)
    • (Invited Seminar, In person, invited by Sundong Kim)
  • 2025
    Neuroscience for Artificial Intelligence
    MLAI group, Yonsei University
    • (Invited Lecture, Offline, invited by Kyungwoo Song)
  • 2024
    Brain-inspired AI
    Kyungpook National University (KNU)
    • (Invited Seminar, In person, invited by Saekwang Nam)
  • 2024
    SUBTLE: An Unsupervised Platform with Temporal Link Embedding that Maps Animal Behavior
    Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology (KIOST)
    • (Invited Seminar, In person, invited by Soomee Kim)
  • 2024
    SUBTLE: An Unsupervised Platform with Temporal Link Embedding that Maps Animal Behavior
    Korea Brain Research Institute (KBRI)
    • (Invited Seminar, In person, invited by Jeongyeon Kim)
  • 2023
    Transformer as a hippocampal memory consolidation model based on NMDAR-inspired nonlinearity
    IBS-CCS Symposium
    • (Oral Presentation, In person)
  • 2023
    Memory editing in the brain - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
    IBS Science in the Cinema Roof
    • (Public Lecture, In person)
  • 2023
    From human mind to artificial intelligence - Is ChatGPT a bridge
    Reading Festival at Jeonil High School
    • (Public Lecture, In person)
  • 2022
    Resolving clustering bias during animal behavior mapping and kinematic profiling
    IBS Data Science Group seminar
    • (Invited Seminar, Online, invited by Meeyoung Cha)
  • 2022
    Resemblances Between Transformer's Nonlinearity and NMDA Receptor Dynamics
    IBS Winter School on AI-Boosted Basic Science
    • (Invited Lecture, In person)
  • 2021
    Age-dependent motor coordination analysis by 3D pose-estimation using AVATAR
    IBS 2021 2nd Workshop
    • (Oral Presentation, In person)
  • 2020
    Backpropagation and the Brain
    KAIST-NeuroAI Journal Club
    • (Oral Presentation, Hybrid)
  • 2020
    Deep learning with NMDA receptor inspired activation function
    IBS 2019 Year-End Workshop
    • (Oral Presentation, In person)
  • 2019
    Development of a Low-cost, Comprehensive Recording System for Circadian Rhythm Behavior
    Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology (KSMCB)
    • (Oral Presentation, In person)

Teaching

  • Guest Lecturer
    Georgia Tech CSE 8803 BMI "Brain-inspired Machine Intelligence", Fall 2024
  • Guest Lecturer
    Ewha Womans University G 18067 "Introduction to System Health", Spring 2026
  • Mentoring
    SoHyung Kim (Korea University, Undergraduate Intern), IBS 2020, 6 months
    • Outputs: CVPR2023-w, IJCV2024 (co-author)
  • Mentoring
    Hyewon Kim (Eulji University, Undergraduate Intern), IBS 2024, 9 months
    • Outputs: ICLR2024-w (co-author), Exp.Neurobiol.2024 (co-first author)
  • Mentoring
    Minsung Kim (Seoul National University, Ph.D. Intern, with Dong-Kyum Kim), MPI-SP 2024, 3 months
    • Outputs: ICLR2025-b, ACL2026 (first author)
  • Mentoring
    Jiseon Kim (KAIST, Ph.D. Intern, with Luiz Felipe Vecchietti), MPI-SP 2025, 6 months
    • Outputs: ICLR2025-w, ACL2026-f (first author)
  • Mentoring
    Nakyeong Yang (Seoul National University, Ph.D. Intern, with Dong-Kyum Kim), MPI-SP 2025, 3 months
    • Outputs: ICLR2026 (first author)

Community Service

  • Symposium Organizer
    KSBNS 2026 Annual Meeting
    • "Minds Meet Machines: Bidirectional Innovations in AI and Neuroscience"
  • Symposium Co-Organizer
    KSBNS & CJK 2025 Joint Symposium
    • "Neuroscience-inspired AI: Computational Insights into Biological and Artificial Intelligence"
  • Program Committee
    AAAI 2026, AI Alignment Track
  • Program Committee
    Machine+Behavior 2026, Harnack House, Berlin
  • Emergency Reviewer
    ICML 2026
  • Reviewer
    ICML 2026 Mechanistic Interpretability Workshop
  • Reviewer
    ICLR 2026
  • Reviewer
    ICLR 2026 Re-Align Workshop
  • Reviewer
    ICLR 2025 Re-Align Workshop
  • Founding Member
    KAIST-NeuroAI Journal Club, 2020