Karla Kaun

Karla Renea Kaun (1979) is a Canadian behavioral neurogeneticist and the Robert and Nancy Carney Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Brown University. She studies addiction using fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), as a model. Kaun is currently president of the International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society (IBANGS).

Education and career
Kaun obtained her PhD in 2007 at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Marla Sokolowski. She followed up with postdoctoral training with Ulrike Heberlein (2007-2011: University of California, San Francisco; 2011-2013: Janelia Research Campus). In 2013 she was recruited as an assistant professor at Brown University; she was promoted to associate professor in 2020. , Kaun has published over 40 articles that have been cited over 2300 times, giving her an h-index of 21. In 2018 she was an International Behavioral and Neural Genetics Society Early Career Achievement awardee.