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2024 has been a year of growth and transformation for the lab. Several long-standing members who’ve helped to define the atmosphere and approach of the lab have moved on to exciting new roles and programs, and so we’ve welcomed nearly an entire new team of enthusiastic researchers bringing fresh perspectives and new ideas. Similarly, we’re wrapping up three large research projets that have been central to our lab’s work over the last few years, while starting up three new projects that will take us in new directions.

As part of this turnover, we had to bid a bitterweet goodbye to Clara, who is returning to Europe for another postdoc that will bring her back closer to family as she grows her own family. We are all so excited for her and Aurelien and look forward to many updates and photos. By sheer luck and coincidence, Rea turned out to be returning to Europe for her Winter Break on the exact same flight! So, we got to wish them off with a very American lunch of burgers and fries before sending them off to the airport. We’ve still got some exciting scientific projects to wrap up with Clara even after her postdoc is officially over, so there will be much more work and personal catching up over the next few months, but we’ll really miss having her in person (while also acknowledging that her family is very excited to have her back)!

For this year’s Decision Lab fall BBQ, we welcomed Marcus, Valerie, and Maya to the lab. Marcus is a new research coordinator with a background in neuroscience and bioethics. Valerie is a postdoc supporting our empirical ethics projects; she trained in cultural and medical anthropology at UC Berkeley. Meanwhile, Maya is currently the course assistant for UCSF’s human subjects Responsible Conduct of Research course, but will be joining the lab soon to think about neuroethics.

In addition, we were really happy to be joined by some Decision Lab alums, Cailin (now an attorney working on disability and health care advocacy), Madhu (now a pediatrics intern at Benioff Children’s Oakland), Celeste (now a clinical ethics fellow at Sutter), and Clayton, a data engineer for a neuroscience startup. So glad they could share ther experiences in lab with our new arrivals, and it was great to hear more about how their lives and careers have developed!

Members of the lab have been interviewed for two podcast episodes about challenging topics in clinical neuroethics. First, Colin Hoy was interviewed for the Neurology podcast to discuss ethical considerations around the diagnosis of prodromal Parkinson’s disease, a companion to an editorial that Colin and I wrote:

Second, I got to have a fun conversation for the GeriPal (Geriatrics and Palliative Care) podcast with Sean Aas, prompted by Sean’s thought-provoking recent article on philosophical and conceptual problems with brain death. (A topic I haven’t written about in a long time, but which I may need to return to…)

After all this time, I didn’t realize that there even was a Decision Lab pizza place! This evening the lab piled into my minivan for a trip out to North Beach for pizza and pasta at Il Casaro – and later, yummy cannolis and cookies. We’re wishing a fond farewell to two longtime lab members. Rea has been with the Decision Lab and the Rankin Lab since before the pandemic, and in addition to amazing science has done so much to help support everyone in our lab and Kate’s lab during some very challenging years. Meanwhile, Brandon first joined the lab in 2021 (he had to start remotely); it’s been awesome to see him develop and refine his interests while in lab, and lab meetings just won’t be the same without the Kobe memes.

Best of luck to both of you – so proud!

It was great to see both Emily Liu and Narayan Sankaran on stage at the 10th Annual BRAIN Initiative Conference.

Emily was one of eight Scholar Spotlight awardees selected to give a Lightning Talk of her abstract to the full meeting, immediately after NIH BRAIN Director John Ngai’s welcome. Then in the afternoon, Narayan spoke as part of a panel on music in the brain (and its potential therapeutic applications), presenting cutting-edge work on neural representations of melody in the brain.

Emily and Narayan will both be going on to faculty roles; Emily at the University of Colorado Department of Neurology, and Narayan helping to establish a new Neuroscience department close to home at the University of San Francisco, and aiming also to set up a neuroethics program within that department. Great work by both of them – so happy to see it recognized!

Today we went out for another game together at Oracle Park, and we were able to celebrate the return to the Bay Area of two Decision Lab alums, Clayton & Madhu. A few other Decision Lab alums came to join us for a mini-lab reunion: Ali, Cailin, and Celeste! It was great to see everyone and get updates on the great things that people have been up to since leaving the lab!