Baljit Khakh (aka Bal) completed his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge on a Glaxo Scholarship, and his postdoctoral trainings at the University of Bristol as a GlaxoWellcome Postdoctoral Fellow, and at the California Institute of Technology as a Wellcome Trust International Prize Travelling Research Fellow. Khakh started his independent research career as a Group Leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (UK) in 2001. In 2006 he joined the faculty at UCLA where he is now Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology. Khakh’s work has been recognized internationally, including with the British Pharmacological Society Bill Bowman Travelling Lectureship, the American Physiological Society Ueno Award, the European Molecular Biology Organisation Young Investigator Award, the H.W. Magoun Distinguished Lectureship, the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the Paul G. Allen Distinguished Investigator Award, and the NINDS Outstanding Investigator Award from the NIH. In 2023, he delivered the 134th UCLA Faculty Research Lecture and was awarded the Eleanor I. Leslie Chair in Neuroscience. He has presented around 250 research lectures around the world.
Baljit Khakh leads a vigorous team of diverse international scientists exploring fundamental astrocyte biology within intact neural circuits in vivo. The research program represents an outstanding opportunity and laboratory environment for training the next generation of scientists and physician-scientists. In addition to his own research, Khakh started a grassroots physiology outreach program for underserved Los Angeles communities that he has co-run for 17 years, providing high school students with their first thrill of experimental research and discovery.