The NSF 2027 budget has noted that they will close out the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Science Program (SBE). This is not a good thing. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/FY-202...

Call your Program Officer Yes, you. Schedule a phone call. This is the hidden curriculum.

Wondering what you shouldn't say in a proposal? Call your program officer.

Wondering what happened in panel? Call your program officer.

Wondering how the latest federal stuff may affect your proposal? Call your program officer.

Call your PO. 🧪

scienceforeveryone.science/call-your-pr...

Poster describing the free rein performance Musicians, dancers and scientists join forces to explore the neurological differences between scripted and improvised performance. Featuring Musiga, NobleMotion Dance, the University of Houston's Nordin lab, and the University of Georgia's Creativity and Imagination Lab with live visualizations of the data. Friday, March 13, 2026 7:30 p.m. Lois Chiles Studio Theater Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University Free with limited seating Register here: delange.rice.edu Music: Anthony Brandt Choreography: Andy and Dionne Noble Visual design: Badie Khaleghian Neuroimaging under the direction of: Anna Abraham and Andrew Nordin Dancers: Deontay Gray, Reese Meredith, Tyler Orcutt, Jacob Regan and Lauren Serrano Musicians: Garrett Hudson, flute; Maiko Sasaki, clarinet; Nanki Chugh, violin; and Chelsea deSouza, piano Bioengineers: Zoya Ahmed, Carter Hartman, Manaal Mustansir and Onyekachi James

Photo of Simon sitting in a conference seat smiling at the camera with the brains and society conference art behind him

One last shot at the close of the first day of DeLange, taken before the remarkable performance of Free Rein. It was a day that made me feel both hopeful and grateful to be part of a community thinking seriously - and imaginatively - about the future of the brain. #DeLangeXIV #DeLangeAtRice2026

Cristine Legare standing at a podium with a slide behind her defining culture as “Culture: group-typical behaviors shared by members of a community that rely on socially learned and transmitted information”

The second provocation talk of the day - Cristine Legare telling us that brains are shaped by and are for culture. It’s not just a nuisance source of variability but a core aspect of what it means to be human. #DeLangeXIV #DeLangeatRice2026

@fractalecho.bsky.social suggests a way through for disability-centered approaches to these new technologies is the model of cyborg maintenance - that disabled individuals need agency to choose technology and choose to maintain the use of technology

Philosopher standing at podium expressing a thought

On to the NeuroTech session - neurosurgeon @sameershethmd.bsky.social highlights progress in new implantable devices that provide neural stimulation for depression and OCD - while philosopher Tim Schroeder asks what do we do when people think these devices are doing to thinking and feeling for them.

At Rice, I have learned this from Anthony Brandt - whose approach to composition and interest in neuroscience - has pushed the way we think about creativity blending foveated science and peripheral vision art, and pulling many together through the Music, Mind and Body Lab

SUPERRADIANCE: Interdisciplinary research lab investigating intelligence, consciousness, and planetary systems through research-based art that bridges embodied experience with emerging technologies. Interdisciplinary artists Memo Akten & Katie Hofstadter investigate intelligence, consciousness, and planetary systems through research-based art bridging embodied experience with emerging technologie...

@memoakten.bsky.social @katiehofstadter.bsky.social remind us that art is a form epistemology - for the vision nerds they align science with the fovea and art with peripheral vision - interspersed with art of pieces that demonstrate why neuroscience needs the arts. #DeLangeXIV
superradiance.net

Power point slide that reads: The Goal: Not just prevention and treatment -- Adaptation Harnessing the changing brain, not simply protecting against its decline 01 PREVENT Identify and address modifiable risk factors - sleep, cardiovascular health, social engagement, diet - across the lifespan, before any symptoms appear 02 UNDERSTAND Map the full cognitive landscape of aging: not just what declines, but what persists, reorganizes, and grows. Variance is the Signal, not the noise 03 ADAPT Engage neuroadaptation - the brain's capacity to reorganize. Some cognitive shifts in aging are not deficits to fix, but reorganizations to understand and leverage for health We should aim not just to halt decline, but to promote full engagement in life across the full arc of aging.

Alice Luo Clayton CEO of the McKnight Brain Research Foundation lays out a future for healthy brain aging - adaptation is key! At Rice - Margaret Beier studies adult skills and knowledge in her lab, not just what declines with age but what gets enhanced! #DeLangeXIV #FutureofAging

Scientia/De Lange Conference | Rice University Conference focused on the exploration of the dynamic interactions between technology, society, and culture. More specifically, the conference will address the challenges of information technology, hea...

Fascinating - but terrifying - talk from @lhnicholas.bsky.social about how long before a diagnosis we can see dementia coming in how people spend their money and pay their bills. #DeLangeXIV #BrainandSociety #RiceUniversity

Scientia/De Lange Conference | Rice University Conference focused on the exploration of the dynamic interactions between technology, society, and culture. More specifically, the conference will address the challenges of information technology, hea...

President DesRoches and Provost Dittmar have launched #DeLangeXIV - and the conversation about Brains in Society has begun. We are live streaming a session on aging and dementia at DeLange.rice.edu. #FutureOfBrainScience #BrainandSociety #RiceUniversity

Home The Rice Brain Institute is reimagining how we understand, protect, and heal the human brain. Bringing together more than 65 of Rice University’s brightest minds in engineering, neuroscience, cognitiv...

And it ties to larger things Rice is doing in our brain and society initiative through the Rice Brain Institute. So if you can’t come next week, there will be more chances to engage.

Brain.rice.edu

The whole conference is free and open to the public - a unique venue for public, transdisciplinary discussions about what academic research can do for issues of societal importance. If you have a brain, are aging, have been in school, this might be for you!

The goal of the conference is to map the path from neuroscience and cognitive science research to societal impact - around aging, in education, through neurotech, and through the brain economy, with provocations about politics, culture, public health and the arts.

Scientia/De Lange Conference | Rice University Conference focused on the exploration of the dynamic interactions between technology, society, and culture. More specifically, the conference will address the challenges of information technology, hea...

If you are in Houston - or want to travel - join us at Rice Thursday March 12-14 for DeLange XIV: Brains in Society: Preparing for Neuroscience’s Impact on our everyday lives. DeLange.rice.edu

NSF building on Eisenhower Av. HUD now owns.

Destroying the NSF mural in the foyer. Of the Eisenhower building.

The National Science Foundation sign on our Eisenhower Av building is now gone.

The NSF mural in the foyer is removed and torn off in sheets.

We were supposed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the agency in May 2025. That never happened.

Heathers!

Fantastic audience, seamless conference. #psynom25

The Sinclair Lab website won an award for Best Research Lab or Group Website! Check out the website and the other winners here:

theacademicdesigner.com/2025/winners...

www.sinclairlab-rice.com

The first big public event is March 12-14, a Rice De Lange conference on the future of neuroscience as it starts to impact society. The De Lange awarded by the Scientia Institute for it to be free and open to the public. Join us in Houston in March! More information to come!

Brain and Society includes fantastic cognitive and affective neuroscientists, and amazing scholars who know the kinds of things we need to know to build the path to impact. We will partner with the World Economic Forum and the Center for Houston’s Future and others to accomplish our broad vision

Our biggest and most exciting swing is the Brain economy. My co-director Harris Eyre has been leading an international effort that starts with the (obvious to me) statement that our brains are our greatest asset and then thinks about how we should invest/change policy to center this asset.

We have to understand the different paths to impact - pharma and neurotech for sure, but also policy, the built environment, and other approaches that could be more scaleable and equitable. Neuroscience has been hyper focused on only a few paths to impact - let’s try more different things!

The idea behind Brain and Society is that neuroscience discovery should lead to improvement in human lives. We have to study human brains, doing tasks that are real-world relevant to humans, while understanding the contexts in which humans live, and the variability (and its sources) across humans.

There are three main research pillars - one builds on Rice’s strength in neuroengineering, a second focuses on cellular/molecular neuroscience. But I am most excited about the third pillar - which I am going co-direct - called Brain and Society.

Big news out of Rice this morning! Our new Brain Institute is launching - with the goal of having a concrete impact on the brain health of our local Houston community.

news.rice.edu/news/2025/ri...

Posting on behalf of Tamar Gollan, who is not on Bluesky:

A postdoc position is open and available immediately in Dr. Tamar Gollan’s Laboratory of Aging Bilingualism at the University of California, San Diego, funded by NIH & NSF. See link for details!

psychiatry.ucsd.edu/about/LAB_Go...

Sinclair Lab The Learning & Behavior Change Lab at Rice University, directed by Dr. Sinclair

🌟 Excited to share that I'm recruiting PhD students in Psychology for my new lab at Rice University this cycle (Signal boost appreciated!)

To learn more, check out the Learning & Behavior Change Lab website:
www.sinclairlab-rice.com

Applications are due Dec 1st: psychology.rice.edu/graduate/pro...

Starting a new chapter, and proud to see the continued impact of programs I helped build — like the first-ever Congressional Hill Day at APS.

Designing & leading this initiative was one of the most meaningful parts of my role. When science meets policy with clarity and purpose, change is possible.

Applications accepted on rolling basis: 4 postdocs, neuroscience of language, Georgetown University (US citizens/permanent residents only) neurolang.georgetown.edu/admission