Priorities

I commit myself to developing and practicing ideas, perspectives, rituals, and practices that support a liberatory future. Towards that end, my current priorities are:

• to study the existing neurobiology research archive, with profound gratitude and humble recognition of the many lives sacrificed to gain this knowledge;
• to contribute insights from neuroscience towards evolving education as a hopeful, compassionate, and exuberant practice of freedom;
• to deepen my connection to my Korean heritage and ancestors, by learning the stories, music, dances, and food that have shaped my family; and
• to hone and evolve my skills as a storyteller and facilitator of fun, wholistic, multi-cultural, and embodied learning experiences.

Projects

Publications

Kim, D. (2022) "Are cephalopods making a comeback in neuroscience?". BioTechniques.

Kim, D., et al. (2022) "An experimental method for evoking and characterizing dynamic color patterning of cuttlefish during prey capture". Journal of Biological Methods, 9.2:e161. DOI: 10.14440/jbm.2022.386.

Kim, D. (2020) The First VIRS. London, UK: Danbee Kim.

Kim, D. (2020) On the aims and methods of field neuroscience. PhD dissertation. Universidade Nova de Lisboa. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.35235.11042

Kim, D. and Kampff, A.R. (2020) "Neuroscience Does Design: What the Brain's Architecture Can Teach Architects." Architectural Design 90.6: 94-99. DOI: 10.1002/ad.2637.

Marques-Smith, A., et al. (2018) "Recording from the same neuron with high-density CMOS probes and patch-clamp: a ground-truth dataset and an experiment in collaboration." BioRxiv: 370080. DOI: 10.1101/370080

Kim, D. (2018) "Why I Refuse to Do Animal Testing in My Science Career." Massive Science.

Quiñones, D. R., et al. (2018) "HIVE Tracker: a tiny, low-cost, and scalable device for sub-millimetric 3D positioning." In Proceedings of the 9th Augmented Human International Conference, pp. 1-8. DOI: 10.1145/3174910.3174935.

Lopes, G. and Kim, D. (2017) "How theater, startup culture, and business history helped us become better neuroscientists." Massive Science.

Kim, D. and Lopes, G. (2017) "Does modern neuroscience really help us understand behavior?" Massive Science.

Videos

Highlights

In this video, I draw and narrate an explanation of the research goals and interests of the Intelligent Systems lab using only the top “ten-hundred” words in English.

In 2018, I co-founded Neuronautas, a 2-week field neuroscience summer camp for youth in the Lisboa/ Oeiras area. Funded by the Academias Gulbenkian do Conhecimento, 2019 - 2022.

Scientific presentations

"What can we learn about brains by studying the movements of bodies?". Presented at the opening plenary session of the 2o Congresso Nacional de Psicomotricidade in Vila Real, Portugal, 2016.

"The Cuttle Shuttle: Behavior and Learning in Predatory Sepia officinalis (Cephalopoda)". Presented at the 2017 CephsInAction & CIAC meeting “Cephalopod Science from Biology to Welfare”, Heraklion, Crete.

Public engagement events

In January 2018, while conducting research for my PhD at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behavior in London, I met Dan Bates, Artistic Director and Founder of the Fitzrovia Arts Fest. Together we created an event called Orchestrating the Brain, a "workshop of musicians and neuroscientists" for the 2018 Fitzrovia Arts Fest. Video produced by Jake Fairnie and April Cashin-Garbutt.

On 24 May, 2019, I hosted a Dear Neuroscience event focused on Touch and Proprioception, working with local performers, crafters, and clinicians to connect neuroscience research to our daily lives. The event was funded by a UCL Train and Engage Fellowship, and this mini-video documentary was filmed and produced by Jake Fairnie.