Tommy Lee

Tommy Lee joined the Department of Neuroscience and Behavior at Barnard College of Columbia University in 2026. Born and raised in New York City, he returns home after training in behavioral neuroscience, inclusive pedagogy, and undergraduate education.

Professor Lee’s research examines how the hippocampus supports the spatial, temporal, and social features of episodic memory: how we remember where events happened, when they happened, and who was there. He has also studied the neurobiology of social bonding in socially monogamous prairie voles. His scholarly interests bridge neuroscience and pedagogy, with a focus on translating principles from learning and memory research into evidence-based teaching that helps students build confidence as scientists.

Previously, Professor Lee held an NIH-IRACDA FIRST Postdoctoral Fellowship at Emory University, where he also taught at Spelman and Morehouse Colleges. He was an inaugural Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in Neuroscience and Behavior at the University of Notre Dame and a MAHPING Pedagogy Fellow at Harvard Medical School and Morehouse School of Medicine. He earned his PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Connecticut.

At Barnard, Professor Lee teaches core neuroscience courses such as Laboratory in Neuroscience and upper-level electives, including Neuroscience of Learning and Memory and Neuroscience of Love.