SANS 2027

Message from the President:

Have you wondered about what makes people “connect” with each other? Why people have difficulty controlling their feelings? Or how humans can make better decisions or when they are more likely to collaborate with AI?

The Social and Affective Neuroscience Society (SANS) is comprised of over 400 scientists across the globe dedicated to understand the psychological and neural processes underlying emotion regulation, social network formation, decision making, close relationships, and more, as well as their role in fostering collaboration and social connection, promoting health, and mitigating psychiatric illness.

Our members utilize multidisciplinary approaches including behavioral, psychophysiological and neuroimaging methods, often in conjunction with computational modeling and machine learning tools to investigate these ideas.

On behalf of our community, I invite you to join us for our annual meeting in 2027, which will be held from April 7-10 at the Centre Mont-Royal in  Montreal,Canada.  We know that many within the scientific community have and will continue to experience difficulties in the coming year. During these times of uncertainty, it is critical that we continue to come together as scientists to not only share our work with each other but to brainstorm ways in which we can impress the importance what we do to the public. We are committed to finding ways to broaden and support participation now more than ever in order to support our strong and continually thriving community.  

Your attendance at our meeting and active participation in our community is instrumental to both the continued success of SANS and our collective goal of further developing a mechanistic understanding of how brain function instantiates social and emotional well-being.

Looking forward to seeing you in vibrant Montreal! 

Nina Lauharatanahirun is the William and Wendy Korb Early Career Professor of Biomedical Engineering and an Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State, where she directs the Decision Neuroscience Laboratory. Her interdisciplinary research integrates neuroscience, engineering, psychology, computer science, and economics to study decision-making under uncertainty, with applications to health and team performance. Supported by agencies including NIDA, NIGMS, ARL, and ONR. She is passionate about mentorship, fostering collaboration, and supporting an inclusive, interdisciplinary community for researchers at all career stages.

Peter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Denver. He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from New York University in Elizabeth Phelps‘ lab. He did postdoctoral training with Antonio Rangel at Caltech, and then with Nathaniel Daw and Elizabeth Phelps at NYU. In his work, he enjoys integrating the perspectives and methods associated with different fields, including cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and behavioral & microeconomics, to understand how we assess value, how we use value to guide behavior, and the ways that emotion is integrated into those processes. Peter founded the professional development program Paths In Psychological Science in the Psychology Department at DU, is an Academic Advisor for DU psychology undergraduates, and was the department’s Professional Development Coordinator for 2020-2022. Peter also co-founded and is the Executive Director of the Application Statement Feedback Program (ASFP).

Bryan Denny, Rice University
Katie Insel, Northwestern University
Richard Lopez, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Shawn Rhoads, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Monica Thieu, University of San Diego
Dylan Wagner, The Ohio State University
Shuo Wang, Washington University in St. Louis