We use Khovanov-Lauda-Rouquier (KLR) algebras to categorify a crystal isomorphism between a fundamental crystal and the tensor product of a Kirillov-Reshetikhin crystal and another fundamental crystal, all in affine type. The nodes of the Kirillov-Reshetikhin crystal correspond to a family of "trivial" modules. The nodes of the fundamental crystal correspond to simple modules of the corresponding cyclotomic KLR algebra. The crystal operators correspond to socle of restriction and behave compatibly with the rule for tensor product of crystal graphs.

We establish an isomorphism between the center of the Heisenberg category defined by Khovanov and the algebra $\Lambda^*$ of shifted symmetric functions defined by Okounkov-Olshanski. We give a graphical description of the shifted power and Schur bases of $\Lambda^*$ as elements of the center, and describe the curl generators of the center in the language of shifted symmetric functions. This latter description makes use of the transition and co-transition measures of Kerov and the noncommutative probability spaces of Biane.