We are happy to welcome Magdalena Sabat as a postdoc in the lab. She will investigate early warning signals of social tipping points, jointly supervised by Anne and Jan Willem Bolderdijk at the University of Amsterdam.

We kicked off Magdalena’s start with several days of brainstorming with an amazing group of collaborators. Welcome!

We had a great time at the Cognitive Computational Neuroscience meeting in Amsterdam, with a satellite meeting on scientists for social good, posters, and a talk. It was great to meet old and new friends and collaborators!

by Georgia Turner

The day before the CCN 2025 conference kicked off in Amsterdam, attendees from career stages ranging from pre-PhD students to keynote speakers gathered together for an event focused on ‘Science for Social Good’. The three-hour session covered big-picture reflections on the role of scientists in society, as well as practical tips like how to switch research topics or start a non-profit. But across these varied topics, one thread ran through every discussion: Can we make contribution to social good not just an accepted, but integral, part of our lives as scientists? 

For the first iteration of the new course Psychology of the Climate Crisis, students worked on creative projects to communicate insights they learned to a broader public. Find their creative contributions below!

• Coping with climate anxiety: @climatewarriors https://www.instagram.com/climatewarriors/
• Climate mythbusting quiz https://substack.com/inbox/post/163459434
• It’s just us and the climate podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4B9DPI8xjll9bpQnZdBsRT?si=i-p4B-hyQa2YcVOjlzQr7g
• Recipes for change cookbook: pdf
• Infographic on ChatGPT’s environmental impact: https://anneurai.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/infographic_chatgpt_no_qr-1.png

With panelists Karline Janmaat, Christian Tudorache, Michelle Spierings and Anne Urai, and with Tonko Zijlstra as a moderator, we had an interesting and stimulating discussion about the ethics of animal research. With expertise from ethology to behavioral biology and neuroscience, the discussion touched on issues of research culture, institutional and legal frameworks for animal studies, the broader use of animals in society and the 3 Rs in animal research.

We live in times when public trust in science is under threat, misinformation is rife, AI ethics are of increasing concern and climate change is increasingly affecting communities worldwide. How do scientists see ourselves and our role in this world, and can we use our skills for social good? This session will explore ways to to extend the impact of our scientific work beyond our laboratories and models, and will critically evaluate how to fulfil our responsibility as scientists during times of significant social and technological change. Join us for a satellite event at CCN 2025 in Amsterdam.

Philippa has been awarded an Erasmus+ travel grant to visit KU Leuven for two weeks in May. She will work in the Desender Lab with Kobe Desender and Robin Vloeberghs to apply the Hierarchical Model for Fluctuations in Criterion. She will use the model to find out how decision-making biases change over the lifespan, and how criterion fluctuations relate to changes in pupil-linked arousal.