Rachel O. Wong

Rachel Wong is an American neuroscientist who is a professor of Biological Structure at the University of Washington. She studies the developmental mechanisms that determine synaptic connectivity in the central nervous system. She was elected to the National Vision Research Institute of Australia in 2018 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.

Early life and education Wong attended high school in Malaysia where she first became interested in physics. She would spend her lunch breaks examining living things, collected from a creek near her home, under the school microscope. She moved to the National Research Institute of Australia as a research associate, where she worked under Professor Abbie Hughes and Dr. David I. Vaney before moving to the United States. Wong was a C.J. Martin Fellow at Stanford University, mentored by Professor Carla J. Shatz. After a few years in the States, Wong returned to the University of Queensland as an R.D. Wright Fellow in Dr. Vaney's laboratory at the Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Center led by Professor Jack Pettigrew. Wong investigates the development of neural circuitry in vivo and in vitro using cellular imaging approaches and molecular genetics.

Wong was appointed to the steering committee of the National Eye Institute Audacious Goals Initiative (AGI), a challenge which looks to identify and support the most promising research towards curing blindness. She was a Rothmans Fellow (Sydney University Endowment), an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, an Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fellow, and a Paul G. Allen Distinguished Investigator. Her research achievements in vision science are acknowledged by the Brian B. Boycott Prize (FASEB Retinal Neurobiology and Visual Processing), the Helen Keller Award (Department of Ophthalmology, University of Washington and the Lions Club of Multiple District 19), and the Friedenwald Award (the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology). In 2021, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Awards and honors 2018 Elected Fellow of the National Vision Research Institute of Australia 2021 Elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Selected publications