Penn Postdocs in the News: Patrick Monari, Ph.D., named 2026 Robertson Foundation Fellow
Penn Postdoctoral Fellow Patrick Monari receives Life Sciences Research Foundation fellowship to investigate the biology of social play
PHILADELPHIA, PA — Dr. Patrick Monari, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, has been named a 2026 Robertson Foundation Fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation (LSRF). The three-year fellowship supports early-career scientists pursuing creative, high-impact research and is awarded to a select group of postdoctoral researchers each year.
Dr. Monari earned a B.A. in Biology and Psychology from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where they were a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Following their doctoral training, Dr. Monari spent a year conducting independent research in New Zealand as a Fulbright Scholar before joining Penn.
At Penn, Dr. Monari conducts research in the laboratory of Dr. Juan Ignacio Sanguinetti-Scheck. Their LSRF-supported project, “Genetic and neural substrates of natural variation in juvenile play,” uses deer mice of the genus Peromyscus to investigate why species naturally differ in how much their juveniles play and to identify the genetic and neural mechanisms underlying those differences.
By examining the biological foundations of social play, Dr. Monari’s research seeks to deepen understanding of how complex social behaviors develop, evolve, and are inherited, with potential implications for understanding social cognition across the lifespan.
The Life Sciences Research Foundation selected 33 postdoctoral researchers for its 2026 class from a pool of more than 850 applications. Fellows receive $85,000 per year for three years, including salary and a research allowance that provides greater independence in pursuing their research. Dr. Monari’s fellowship is sponsored by the Robertson Foundation.
We are proud to celebrate Dr. Monari and their contributions to advancing research on the biological foundations of social behavior at Penn.