This year marks the establishment of NYU Shanghai’s first annual series of N.E.T. Awards for Academic Excellence. The N.E.T. Award for academic excellence aims to stimulate students’ progress in academic research and recognize students who have made outstanding achievements in their work. From a competitive pool of talented applicants, 5 recipients were selected across disciplines.
Recently, the N.E.T. Program Award Committee is honored to announce ECNU Ph.D. candidate Siqi Li as this year’s recipient of the new N.E.T. Award for Academic Excellence. According to Li, the N.E.T. Award “represents the affirmation of my research from my professors and receiving this award in light of steep fierce competition is a great encouragement to me.” After graduation, Li plans to continue her studies as a postdoc in the field of Neuroscience.
Siqi Li
NYU Shanghai - ECNU Joint Graduate Training Program (N.E.T.)
Ph.D. Candidate in Cognitive Neuroscience
What is the current focus of your research? Is there a particular lab you are affiliated with? Who has most influenced you in your work?
In recent years, I have been working on a project that focuses on the question “How do humans perceive changes in the environment while being aware of the consequences of their actions?” Under the supervision of Professor Xing Tian I have sought to answer this question by studying the impact of the way that speech is generated via the perception of ambient sounds. Previous studies have been mostly based on examining animal models, whereas my experiment was designed around recording the EEG responses of human subjects when they were about to speak and hear a sound, which is a relatively new paradigm. Under the supervision of Professor Tian, I wrote the paper in collaboration with Hao Zhu, which was then published in a leading neuroscience journal, Cerebral Cortex. By participating in every stage of the research process, I feel as if I have improved significantly as a researcher and have been greatly encouraged in my future work by the Institute’s news.
Can you describe the support and mentorship that you have received from your faculty advisors? What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a researcher and how did you meet it?
I have been working on this project since my first year as a Ph.D. student, which was based on the general research direction of the SLANG lab (Speech, Language and Neuroscience Group). I found the direction that I was interested in and communicated with Professor Tian who was very supportive of me. At the early stages of a research project, it is difficult for students to develop specific scientific questions and decide what they want to do. Professor Tian helped me a lot during that period and we had rounds of discussions. Any idea could be raised and any question could be discussed about what I might want to do and what he could do to help me.
As the project neared completion, a real challenge for me – and I know this is true for many other students who progress to this stage –was to present our research findings in a cohesive, easily understood paper that summarized our findings. Professor Tian gave me a lot of help during this final process. He advised me to participate in the poster sessions of academic conferences, and present the stage results of our research with posters and communicate with other professors. The NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai also provided an important platform for me and I participated in and benefited directly from the poster sessions of two institute retreats. Many professors and postdocs at the institute have listened to my presentation and given me helpful feedback and guidance. These are great training experiences and practice opportunities for students and were instrumental in helping me to gradually develop and polish the final presentation of our research findings.
During my Ph.D. study, Professor Tian also led us to attend the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Neuroscience (SfN) held in Chicago, an academic event that hosts over 30,000 people. Professor Tian encouraged me to apply for the poster session before the meeting. At the beginning it was difficult, but Professor Tian gave me many detailed suggestions regarding the poster’s content, presentation, and even design and layout detail. I was encouraged when my poster was selected! Professor Tian also helped me to improve my English presentation skills. At SfN, I had the opportunity to meet and discuss my work with scholars from all over the world and from many different backgrounds. I learned so much from this experience, and I feel as if my final presentation was a real success.
What do you find unique about the N.E.T Program? How has being a member of the N.E.T. community affected you and your research?
The N.E.T Program is quite unique and I have gained a lot through my years of study. The joint research institute provides a platform for inspiration where you can take part in seminar series each Friday at noon that invite experts and scholars from all over the world. Having the chance to ask top scientists questions at these seminars is an amazing training opportunity for students beginning to engage with the larger scientific community. I think I attended almost every seminar regardless of whether or not it was in my research field, and that really kept me in touch with cutting-edge developments and expanded my academic horizons.
How will this award help you on your research path?
This award represents the affirmation of my research from my professors. Receiving this award in light of fierce competition is a great encouragement to me. After graduation, I plan to continue my research journey and become a postdoc fellow. I would like to continue focusing on the transformation process of motor perception processing and explore more diverse research methods.