Jonathan Z. Ong
jonathanzong98@gmail.com | CV
Jonathan Ong Zhie Min, born and raised in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is a master’s student specializing in developmental cognitive neuroscience at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His studies are supported by a fully funded studentship under an A*STAR Grant led by Prof. Victoria Leong.
As part of his Master’s, Jonathan is a student investigator in the Sociometric AI Neurodevelopmental Risk Stratification (STARS) project, which aims to develop an AI-based screening tool to assess early neurodevelopmental trajectories in infants (6-36 months). In this role, Jonathan designs naturalistic tasks to evaluate executive function in young children, and collects and processes dyadic EEG and ECG data from infants and toddlers, ensuring high-quality data and adherence to ethical standards.
Concurrently, he is investigating the neurobehavioral basis of social learning in a parent-child interactive context using a cross-species approach. Jonathan utilizes dual EEG and dynamic systems modeling to explore how parent-child neurobehavioral contingencies support information transmission from parent to child. To address the limitations of non-invasive and correlational human studies, he employs optogenetic methods to manipulate neural activity in mouse parent-child dyads, examining the causal role of neural synchronization in social learning through a modified task he helped develop. His data analysis involves using MATLAB, R, and Python.
Jonathan’s research journey began with a Bachelor of Psychological Science and a subsequent Honours degree extension at Monash University, where he was awarded the Best Graduate Award twice for his outstanding academic performance. His undergraduate research, which was eventually published, examined individual differences in how two strangers perceive each other following a meaningful conversation. He also received the Monash High Achiever Award, the Graduate Pathway Research Scholarship, and a loan exemption from the Malaysian National Higher Education Fund Corporation.
Outside the lab, Jonathan enjoys playing sports, exploring his interest in ant-keeping, and engaging in deep conversations with friends.