Wolfson JRF Dr Fei-Yang Huang Wins Prestigious European Brain and Behaviour Society Award

Dr Fei-Yang Huang, Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College and Wellcome Trust Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford, has been awarded the 2025 European Brain and Behaviour Society (EBBS) Young Investigator Award for his groundbreaking research into the neuroscience of food decision-making.

Decoding Food Decision Making

Dr Huang’s award-winning study, titled “The Role of Primate Amygdala in Sensory and Nutrient Food Decision,” explores how the amygdala – a key brain region involved in emotion and decision-making – processes both sensory qualities and nutritional content to guide food choices in primates. His research provides new insights into the neural mechanisms behind food decision making.

Bridging Neuroscience and Nutrition Ecology

By integrating neuroscience with nutrition ecology, Dr Huang’s work addresses pressing questions about how animals, including humans, make strategic food choices. These findings not only deepen our understanding of the biological basis of reward processing but may also help inform public health strategies in the future.

The EBBS Young Investigator Award

The EBBS Young Investigator Award recognises exceptional early-career researchers whose work advances our understanding of brain and behaviour. The Society, one of Europe’s leading organisations in behavioural neuroscience, celebrates innovation and excellence in the field through this annual award.

Dr Huang is based in the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford, where he leads research that combines behavioural theories from economics, psychology, and ecology with computational modelling, to study how brain cells (neurons) communicate through electrical signals to support decision-making. His work aims to uncover the biological basis of complex cognitive processes, in particular the neural mechanisms underlying food choice and social interactions.

We are proud to celebrate Dr Huang’s achievement and look forward to seeing the impact of his research.