In our lab, we highly value being active beyond our scientific work to improve the local or broader academic community, to communicate science to the general public, and to use science to help shape policy. This page lists our activities in these areas. You can also download the flyer for the NYU Community.

Growing up in Science is a mentorship series co-founded and led by Wei Ji. In each event, one faculty member shares their life story, with a focus on struggles, failures, doubts, detours, and weaknesses. Common topics include dealing with expectations (your own and others), impostor syndrome, procrastination, the role of luck, rejection, and conflicts with advisors, but these topics are always embedded in the speaker's broader narrative. We also feature speakers who have left academia - e.g. academic editors, data scientists, and even a screenwriter. The series has themed events on mentorship, anti-racism, work-life balance, and other topics.

In 2021, Weiji co-organized the NYU Workshop on Race and Racism in Science. He also runs the mentorship series Growing up in Science, which has featured events dedicated to anti-racism.

The Scientist Action and Advocacy Network (ScAAN) was founded by Will Adler while he was a PhD student in the lab. ScAAN scientists provide pro bono science consultation to social causes, with an emphasis so far on justice reform and environment. ScAAN supports ongoing campaigns of social change organizations by writing knowledge briefs for lay audiences and by visualizing or analyzing data. Besides Will, many lab members and alumni have played a role in ScAAN: Jenn Laura Lee is a founding member and president, Wei Ji is a founding member and project leader, and Andra and Maija are active members. Wei Ji and Jenn gave workshops about the ScAAN model at the S|GNS Summit 2018 (Chicago) and at the Science Policy Symposium 2018 (New York). Wei Ji, with Diane Geng, also received the 2016 NYU Making a difference award for founding the Rural China Education Foundation.

Most of the lab participated in the March for Science 2017. Will was appointed an Early-Career Policy Ambassador for the Society for Neuroscience and participated in Capitol Hill Day. Will and Wei Ji participated in Regional Hill Day, meeting with the office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

We consider the clear communication of science and issues surrounding science to the general public an important responsibility of all scientists. Aspen and Andra took the NYU Science communication workshops, Jenn Lee writes for the The Neuroethics Blog (e.g. here), Peipei writes a neuroscience blog (in Chinese), and Wei Ji has written popular pieces for Natuurwetenschap en Techniek (now defunct) and for Chessbase. In addition, Wei Ji was a founding member of Neuwrite Downtown, founded by NYU PhD student Alex Berardino, which brings together scientists and writers to workshop drafts of articles written for general audiences. Its parent organization, Neuwrite, operates in many universities worldwide.

The Neuroscience Outreach Group at NYU and the Greater NYC chapter of the Society for Neuroscience, braiNY, bring science to general audiences through presentations at K-12 schools, science fairs, and other events. Many lab members - including Bas, Will, Andra, Aspen, and Wei Ji - have been active in these organizations, or have given guest lectures at schools on their own. Wei Ji has also given science communication workshops inspired by a training given by the Alan Alda Center.

Lab member Luisa Leonelli founded the High School Tutoring Program run by the Society for Undergraduate Neural Science at NYU. In this program, current NYU students volunteer to help current high school students on STEM subjects.

Wei Ji was the expert interviewed in the video "Illusions for a better society" by Aaron Duffy, Lake Buckley, and Jack Foster, shown at the TED conference in Seatlle in 2018:

Weiji is Director of Undergraduate Studies in NYU's Department of Psychology (except in the year 2021-2022) and has made teaching innovation a priority:

• He started a Student Advisory Council to receive regular direct feedback from students on all aspects of their education;
• he piloted Teaching Squares in the department;
• he started an annual Teaching Symposium (recording from 2021; NYU login required);
• he made teaching observations by Teaching and Learning professionals mandatory for tenure and promotion in the department.

In his own teaching, he has experimented with gradeless teaching.

Wei Ji, with Diane Geng, received the 2016 NYU Making a difference award for their work with the Rural China Education Foundation. Wei Ji was a neuroscience consultant on The Brain Piece (2017), an interactive modern dance performance by Jody Oberfelder inspired by the brain. With Oberfelder, he also was part of a performative lecture (2016) in the Merchant House in Amsterdam, and hosted a conversation between dance and neuroscience at NYU (2017). Wei Ji was also a scientific consultant on Anatola Araba’s short film “Afro Algorithms” (2022). Lab alumna Zhiwei Li has participated in the Dance your PhD contest (2017).