News and Events

Featuring engaging lectures with top experts from across the country and many on-campus activities, this interdisciplinary program is a collaboration of several academic departments and programs with neuroscience student organizations Synapse and Nu Rho Psi.

This year’s Brain Awareness Week will highlight keynote lectures on the neuroscience of happiness and aging while also spotlighting the intersection of educational policy and ethics with neuropolitics, a field that blends neuroscience and political science to explore how people make political decisions. The theme was chosen by the National Council of Nu Rho Psi, the National Honor Society in Neuroscience, for the 2025–2026 academic year.

Continuing a popular tradition, Nu Rho Psi students are teaming up with Associate Professor of Art David Sanchez-Burr’s class to create an installation on the 2025 theme of neuropolitics, to be unveiled at the Glassman Symposium.

As Aaron Oster ’26 works on his senior thesis—investigating protective strategies against Alzheimer’s disease—he appreciates how Brain Awareness Week highlights the interdisciplinary nature of neuroscience.

“The opportunity to learn from and connect with keynote speakers from various sub-disciplines of the field strengthens our professional networks and broadens our understanding of neuroscience, as well as potential career pathways,” Oster, a College Nu Rho Psi leader, said. “The Glassman Symposium embodies this same interdisciplinary spirit through collaboration with the art department in creating a sculpture for the event, as well as through students and alums presenting their research across various scientific fields, providing invaluable preparation for graduate school and future careers.”

Highlights of this year’s Brain Awareness Week include:

• Opening Keynote Lecture: “Science and Education for Good—How Neuroscience can create a more informed and equitable world (particularly in this geopolitical moment) ” delivered by Melina Uncapher, PhD, founder and CEO of Scientific and Engineering Technical Assistance for Education R&D (SETA-ED) at 4:15 p.m. on Monday, October 27, in the Tarble Room, Brown Hall.
• Nu Rho Psi Keynote Lecture: “Pathways to Maximizing Healthspan: Lessons in Resistance and Resilence in Brain Aging” delivered by Dr. Emily Rogalski, University of Chicago’s Rosalind Franklin PhD Professor of Neurology, at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, October 28 in the Tarble Room, Brown Hall.
• Annual Mind and Society Dialogue Lecture: “The Great Happiness Self-Sabotage: How Brains & Big Bucks Can Undermine Happiness” delivered by Dr. Rajagopal Raghunathan, at the Zane Centennial Professor of Business, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, October 29, presented via Teams. Contact Professor Shubhik DebBurman (debburman@lakeforest.edu) for a Teams link.
• Robert B. Glassman Memorial Brain, Mind, and Behavior Symposium
  • Day One: Faculty and alumni talks from 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, October 30 in the Tarble Room, Brown Hall. Topics include lessons from infant eye movements, unlocking silent synapses in metastatic tumor cells, music as magic, the link between stress and colorectal cancer, and how powerful yeasts model deadly brain diseases caused by toxic protein shapes.
  • Day Two: Undergraduate and alumni research poster session from 4 to 6:30 p.m. on Friday, October 31 in Calvin Durand Hall, Mohr Student Center. This session will feature over 50 presentations by students and alumni on the original research they have conducted at the College and at major research universities, and a closing celebration with remarks from President Mike Sosulski and the recognition of all student scholars presenting at the symposium.

A Lake Forest tradition for over two decades, Brain Awareness Week’s enduring longevity speaks to the increasing societal relevance of understanding how our brain works and guides all our behaviors and the impact that has on all aspects of daily life and human society, said Disque D. and Carol Gram Deane Professor of Biological Sciences and Chair of Neuroscience Shubhik DebBurman. “This is such a critical moment in time for the public to truly understand the critical role science plays in our rapidly changing technology-driven world and how to ethically navigate our future as well-informed citizens,” he said.

Synapse students put a lot of effort into makimg BAW a campus-wide experience.

“Through our annual collaborations with the Gus and Margie Hart Dining Hall staff, we set up a series called ‘Brain Bites,’ which is a weeklong incentive of sharing and serving foods that are good for the mind and body,” said Gizem Ozturk ’26, Synapse leader. “With the Donnelley and Lee Library, we display books that discuss the Mind Body Problem, specifically focused on our BAW themes, this year it being Neuropolitics. These small collaborations expose majority of our student population to BAW.”

All Brain Awareness Week events are free and open to the public.

Related Links:

• Explore the neuroscience program at Lake Forest College
• Robert B. Glassman Memorial Brain, Mind, and Behavior Symposium
• Learn more about Brain Awareness Week