Announcing the Appointment of Hongjun Song, PhD, as Chair of the Department of Neuroscience
October 27, 2025
With much enthusiasm, we are delighted to announce the appointment of Hongjun Song, PhD as the David J. Mahoney Professor of Neurological Sciences and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, effective November 1, 2025. The Department of Neuroscience has a storied history, rich in scientific inquiry and discovery; Dr. Song’s deep commitment to its groundbreaking research and education will have far-reaching impact.
As a member of the National Academy of Medicine, Dr. Song is an internationally recognized and respected scientist whose research focuses on understanding basic mechanisms regulating neural stem cells and plasticity in the mammalian brain. Insights from these investigations may contribute to our understanding of brain disorders and facilitate novel strategies for repair of the dysfunctional adult nervous system. Underscoring his collaborative nature, Dr. Song’s work exemplifies the important connections being made each day across Penn Medicine between our basic scientists and clinical care teams. As one example, Dr. Song was part of the Penn Medicine research team that, for the first time, used lab-grown organoids created from tumors of individuals with glioblastoma to accurately model a patient’s response to CAR T cell therapy in real time. Over his career, his work has been cited over 71,000 times.
Dr. Song earned his undergraduate degree in Biology from Peking University in China. He completed his PhD in Biology from the University of California, San Diego, and finished his postdoc in Stem Cell Biology and Neuroscience at The Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in California. Prior to his arrival at Penn, he and his wife, Guo-li Ming, PhD, who currently serves as the Perelman Professor of Neuroscience at Penn, spent 14 years at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience and the Institute for Cell Engineering.
A dedicated educator and mentor, Dr. Song has to date mentored 42 graduate students, 61 postdoctoral fellows, and 12 clinical fellows as well as many undergraduate and high school students. In recognition of his efforts, he received the NINDS Landis Mentoring Award for Outstanding Mentorship in 2022. Since establishing his independent research laboratory at the end of 2002, 44 of his previous trainees are assistant professors, tenured associate professors, and full professors in different universities in the United States and abroad.
1479With Dr. Song’s appointment, we also have the opportunity to thank John Dani, PhD, for his steadfast and thoughtful leadership as Department Chair over the last 12 years. We also extend our thanks to Lewis Chodosh, MD, PhD, Chair of Cancer Biology, for his direction of the national search committee and the committee’s diligence and dedication to identifying the Department’s next leader.
As new developments and discoveries transform science and the field of neuroscience, Dr. Song has set an ambitious strategy for the department’s next decade – one that inspires faculty engagement, produces growth and innovation, and further elevates the stature of the department nationally. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Song on his appointment.
