Kim's research has demonstrated that the acquisition and retrieval of fear memories is different across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and that fear memories are able to be erased early in life. Kim's research uses rodent models that closely resemble human behaviors to understand theneurobiological basis of those behaviors. Specifically, her work investigates the role of memory and forgetting in the development and treatment of two major mental disorders across childhood and adolescence:anxiety disorder andsubstance use disorder.[citation needed]
To studyanxiety, the Kim laboratory employs aclassical conditioning paradigm based on the work ofIvan Pavlov known asfear conditioning. Despite originating 100 years ago, this model is widely used by modern scientists to uncover the neural mechanisms of fear and anxiety. To investigate substance abuse the Kim laboratory uses anoperant conditioning paradigm based on the work ofB. F. Skinner known as intravenous self-administration. Kim's research especially focuses onextinction, a form of inhibitory learning that forms the basis of exposure-based therapies for both anxiety and addiction disorders.[citation needed]
Kim has over 70 original publications to date, and her work has been cited in other publications over 2700 times.[9]
Kim completed her undergraduate degree at theUniversity of New South Wales (UNSW) in 2004, graduating with theUniversity Medal in Psychology. She completed herPhD inpsychology in 2008 at UNSW, during which time she published six original scientific articles.[10][11][12][13][14][15] After graduating, Kim worked as apostdoctoral research fellow at UNSW, and then theUniversity of Michigan. Kim then gained a position as a Senior Research Officer at the Florey Institute, before becoming head of the Developmental Psychobiology Laboratory at the institute.
Kim is a vocal advocate for Women in Science, and has served on the committee for the Florey Committee for Equality is Science (EqIS).[16] Kim was acknowledged for her role as a proponent for women in science in Kate White's book,Building effective career paths for women in science research: a case study of an Australian science research institute.[17]
^Kim, Jee Hyun; Richardson, Rick (1 December 2007). "Immediate post-reminder injection of gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) agonist midazolam attenuates reactivation of forgotten fear in the infant rat".Behavioral Neuroscience.121 (6):1328–1332.CiteSeerX10.1.1.560.7099.doi:10.1037/0735-7044.121.6.1328.ISSN0735-7044.PMID18085885.
