Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Arkarup Banerjee has been named a 2025 McKnight Scholar. Awarded by the McKnight Foundation, the scholarship provides early-career neuroscientists with $225,000 over three years. The award will support Banerjee’s ongoing work to understand how brains enable vocal communication.
“It’s truly an honor to be selected as a McKnight Scholar,” Banerjee says. “Human society revolves around interactive communication. And when this ability is lost or hindered, such as in autism or stroke-induced aphasia, the impact can be devastating. Therefore, a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying vocal communication is crucial.”
Banerjee is a rising star of CSHL’s neuroscience program. His team studies vocal communication in Alston’s singing mice—rodents that communicate through “songs” that mirror the turn-taking structure of human conversations. This remarkable behavior, absent in closely related species, provides an exceptional research opportunity. By combining cutting-edge neuroscience techniques with evolutionary analysis, Banerjee’s work aims to reveal not just how brains function, but how they evolve to support complex social behaviors in mammals.
“This award will allow my lab to tackle this important question,” Banerjee adds. “I also look forward to attending the McKnight Conference and the opportunity to engage in inspiring discussions with colleagues at the forefront of neuroscience.”
Since 1977, the McKnight Scholarship has been one of neuroscience’s most prestigious early-career honors. Recipients become part of an exclusive community of the nation’s leading neuroscientists, placing Banerjee among the field’s most promising young researchers.
Written by: Nick Wurm, Communications Specialist | wurm@cshl.edu | 516-367-5940