Kay M. Tye (born c. 1981)[1] is an American neuroscientist and professor and Wylie Vale Chair[2] in the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences.

Her thesis work was published in Nature[3][5] and won the Donald B. Lindsley Prize in Behavioral Neuroscience and the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award.

[3] Her research has focused on answering questions on how the same neural mechanism in the amygdala of the brain can regulate such different behavioral responses to negative and positive environmental cues.

[4][9] In 2014, she was named one of MIT Technology Review's TR35 top innovators under the age 35 for her use of optogenetics in identifying neural circuits involved in anxiety and social interaction.

[10][11] In November 2019, Tye gave a TED Talk at the National Academy of Sciences titled "What Investigating Neural Pathways Can Reveal About Mental Health".