Public Engagement

A core mission of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre is to contribute to society through a better understanding of brain function. We engage with a variety of audiences including school and college students, the local Fitzrovia community, and groups currently under-served by university engagement and in particular scientific branches of study.

Everyone at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre is encouraged to take part in public engagement activities with the goal of generating mutual benefit and enhancing the quality and impact of our research. Support is provided through training opportunities and Public Engagement Network meetings.

What is the Public Engagement Network?

The SWC Public Engagement Network (PEN) is open to all students, researchers and staff members at the SWC and the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit (GCNU). The Network is for those who have an interest in, or experience of, public engagement.

Network members meet frequently to share, reflect and develop ideas for engagement activities and discuss upcoming opportunities. Members also receive regular emails outlining available opportunities and ways to get involved.

If you are a student, researcher or staff member at SWC or GCNU and would like to join the Network or learn more about public engagement opportunities, please contact our Communications and Engagement Team.

Ongoing activities

November 2021 to present – In2research

SWC is delighted to be supporting In2Research, a STEM programme developed by social mobility charity In2scienceUK that empowers undergraduate students from under-represented backgrounds to progress to postgraduate research.

  • In the 2021-2022 academic year, four mentors from SWC and GCNU were selected to take part. The researchers were paired with mentees to provide guidance on career skills and research placement opportunities.
  • In the 2022-2023 academic year, two mentors from SWC and GCNU were selected to take part and one further SWC/GCNU applicant was selected to host a summer placement.
  • In the 2023-2024 academic year, three mentors from SWC were selected to take part and four SWC applicants were selected to host summer placements. 

As part of the inaugural year, SWC was pleased to host an In2Research Away Day where the participants met face-to-face for the first time and developed their networks and skills. To mark the successful completion of the first year of the new STEM programme SWC also hosted a Celebration Event where In2research students presented posters on their research projects and networked with peers, mentors, and supporters.

Image credit: Amanda Summons Creative

Past activities

October 2023 - In2scienceUK students meet with SWC researchers

From 23 to 25 Oct, two Year 13 students from the In2scienceUK programme joined researchers in the Behrens lab to get a glimpse into what research looks like at SWC. Senior Research Fellow Diksha Gupta and PhD Students Beatriz Godinho and Chongyu (Xiao) Qin gave the students a tour of the building, including experimental rooms. The students also met with researchers in the Mrsic-Flogel, Erlich, Hofer, and Burgess labs, learned about Neuropixels, and participated in journal club.

Diksha, Beatriz, and Xiao shared that the three-day experience was extremely rewarding. With their expertise, they taught the students about reinforcement learning (RL) and how the Behrens lab uses the RL framework in their research. In addition to coding, the students had the chance to further learn about the nervous system through a Mindflex game and arm control demonstration.

October 2023 - Biology Week #IAmABiologist Career Profiles

To celebrate Biology Week 2023, we supported the #IAmABiologist campaign by sharing career profiles of four SWC researchers. SWC Senior Research Fellow Loukia Katsouri as well as PhD Students Alice Koltchev, Dammy Onih, and Tom Hagley explained how they came to be neuroscientists at SWC and their advice for secondary school students interested in becoming biologists. The career profiles are formatted into posters and slides for secondary school teachers to share with their classes. Check out the profiles in our Teacher Resources page

August 2023 - BrainCamp Kosovo

From 15 to 17 August, PhD alumni Egzona Morina and Federico Claudi led the sixth annual BrainCamp held at Pristina, Kosovo. 20 students from the ATOMI Institute aged 16-18 participated in lessons around artificial intelligence, neuroprosthetics, and brain computer interfaces. With the help of the EmotiBit, a wearable mini-computer with sensors, students were able to participate in experiments that used biofeedback, ranging from a closed loop monitoring and control of heart rate. They also had the opportunity to come up with their own project designs, one of which was playing songs based on how a person is feeling! Students also had the chance to discuss research papers on neural data, having been taught the fundamentals of neural encoding and decoding. SWC PhD students and postdocs have participated as teachers since the first BrainCamp Kosovo founded by Egzona Morina in 2018.

July 2023 - Neuronauts

From 10 to 14 July, 9 secondary school students (aged 14-15) from London participated in the Neuronauts 2023 summer camp, following on from the inaugural camp last summer. Hosted at SWC, the course this year was run by the Voight-Kampff Foundation team in collaboration with the Neuronauts team of SWC and GCNU PhD students. Neuronauts students learned about the fundamentals of technology, from electrons to AI, while building their own brain-shaped robot. They also had a chance to visit the labs and meet some of the neuroscientists at SWC. Find out more about Neuronauts

October 2022 to July 2023 - Neuronauts School Club

During the academic year 22/23, SWC PhD students Svenja Nierwetberg, Dammy Onih, and Jai Bhagat organised and led a Science Club for London secondary school students interested in continuing with electronics concepts learned in the Neuronauts 2022 summer camp. Students met every other Saturday from 12-4pm. After talks on fundamental neuroscience from PhD students Nicole Vissers and Zane Mitrevica, as well as SWC Research Fellow alum Fred Marbach, students continued with lessons on robotics, sensors, and the Bonsai visual programming language.

In January, students started brainstorming for a final project to submit to the Big Bang Fair competition and settled on designing a space station that is accessible for visually impaired astronauts. The School Club was also supported by PhD student Ella Svahn, and Neuronauts organisers Pip Coen and Danbee Kim. After GCSE exams and the competition, the students and organisers celebrated with a picnic in July. All students expressed interest in continuing with the School Club in the 2023-24 academic year.

June 2023 - Hillcrest School Science Club win brain hat competition for SWC tour

Following the Big Bang Fair, Science Club students in Key Stage 3 at Hillcrest School, a secondary school in Birmingham, submitted a photo of their brain hats. The group were selected as the winners of our brain hat competition and will receive a tour of the SWC facilities and meet some of our scientists. Congratulations Hillcrest!

June 2023 - Big Bang Fair

From 21 to 23 June, we exhibited at The Big Bang Fair, an annual science fair in Birmingham. We met over 200 STEM teachers from secondary schools around the UK and had some great discussions about nurturing the next generation of neuroscientists. Many thanks to all our volunteers including Lauren Bennett, Naureen Ghani, Mohadesh Shafiei Kafraj, Haran Shani-Narkiss, and Julia Yin.

June 2023 – The SWC Lecture by Professor Stephen Reicher

We were delighted to host Professor Stephen Reicher from the University of St Andrews for this year's annual SWC Lecture. Live-illustrated by Alex Cagan, the lecture focused on what the Covid-19 pandemic taught us about the importance of creating positive social relations for an effective response.

We were pleased to welcome colleagues from across UCL, members of the local Fitzrovia community, and students taking part in the BNA Scholars, STEM Learning, and In2research programme.

SWC Lecture 2023 Stephen Reicher
May 2023 – SWC participates in William Perkin School Founder's Day

On 5 May 2023, we visited the William Perkin CofE High School to celebrate their Founder’s Day dedicated to science. SWC Microscopy Specialist Peter Gordon and Histology Research Scientist Jessica Broni-Tabi engaged with Year 10 students on the important role chemistry plays in how scientists visualise neurons in the brain. Students looked through light microscopes at brain tissue from different species and asked questions to learn about histology and microscopy. Read the fully story

William Perkin 2023 Collage
Spring 2023 – Brain workshops and vitrines survey

In March 2023, we hosted brain workshops for the local community where we discussed knowledge and interest in neuroscience in preparation for a new exhibition in our vitrines/window displays on Howland Street. Across four sessions, we met with Fitzrovia residents, local commuters, and regular passersby and worked with qualitative research specialist Curiouser to gather insights.

Following these initial sessions, SWC researchers and staff conducted surveys of passersby on Howland Street throughout April and May 2023. We spoke with over 220 people on knowledge of SWC, the existing vitrines, brain science, and more. Further engagement on the vitrines will follow in due course.

April 2023 – Impact of AI and Neuroscience on the Future of Education: Teachers Event

On 25 April, we hosted an event to help teachers better understand the role of AI in education. The event featured presentations and interactive workshops designed to help teachers explore the potential benefits and challenges of incorporating AI, including ChatGPT, into the classroom. 

AI Teachers Event 2023
March 2023 - Brain Awareness Week

To celebrate Brain Awareness Week 2023, we shared three new articles featuring the views of SWC seminar speakers on topical questions in neuroscience. The questions centred around artificial and biological intelligence and how intelligence is defined in the context of behaviour. If you missed the articles on our social media channels, you can check them out below.

 

Brain awareness week 2023
February 2023 – British Brain Bee

On 4 February, PhD students and researchers Jasvin Kaur, Beatriz Godinho, and William Walker (Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit) volunteered at the British Brain Bee Competition held at London Metropolitan University. They led engaging activities involving a human-human interface, cerebellar adaptation goggles, and a mind flex game.

Jasvin and Beatriz at Brain Bee 2023
November 2022 – Big Bang Experience Day

On 21 November, we hosted a group of students from the Simon Balle School and Hills Road Sixth Form College, who were winners of the Big Bang Competition pre-pandemic. The students toured some of our facilities, including Advanced Microscopy and Fablab, and were able to interact with researchers and staff to get a glimpse of what goes on behind-the-scenes at a neuroscience research institute.

October 2022 – Biology Week #IAmABiologist Campaign

To celebrate Biology Week 2022, we shared microscopy videos of the brain and careers advice and tips across our social media channels. Our researchers also took part in the #IAmABiologist campaign by sharing photos of themselves in action to highlight the breadth of roles you can do working in bioscience. Check out their #IAmABiologist profiles

August 2022 – BrainCamp Kosovo

SWC PhD students Peter Vincent, Sarah Olesen, Alice Koltchev, and Quentin Pajot-Moric led a neuroscience summer school in Kosovo called BrainCamp. Created by the Xheladin & Xhufe Morina Foundation and in partnership with ATOMI, the annual BrainCamp is geared toward high school students to teach them diverse fields of neuroscience – this year, spanning from theoretical and human behavioural studies of learning to instinctive hunting and escape behaviours in mice. SWC PhD students and postdocs have participated as teachers since the first BrainCamp Kosovo founded by SWC PhD alum Egzona Morina in 2018.

BrainCamp Kosovo 2022

Image credit: Sarah Olesen and Peter Vincent

August 2022 – In2scienceUK students visit the SWC

From 15 to 19 August, Year 12 students from the In2scienceUK programme joined SWC Research Fellow Chryssanthi Tsitoura in the lab and helped with data analysis. The students enjoyed learning to validate cell counts obtained using the automatic cellfinder tool by manually counting cells expressing a fluorescent protein via rabies virus in whole-brain images. In the microscopy facility, the students also saw how mouse brains are mounted on the microscope and how the tissue is sliced and imaged.

In2science August 2022 collage
Summer 2022 – Neuronauts

We were excited to host a summer camp for London secondary students (aged 14-16) in July and August 2022. Students learned fundamentals in engineering, computer science, and neuroscience. The camp equipped students to build their own “neurokit” and they underwent a hands-on interactive curriculum to understand how the brain communicates with the body, the physics behind common electronic devices, and analysis of data in programming languages. Find out more about the fully funded camp and reflections from the organisers on this summer

The deadline for applying to Neuronauts 2022 has now passed and applications are closed. If you are interested in attending next year's course or smaller, similarly themed sessions that may take place over Fall 2022 and Spring 2023, please email Neuronauts@ucl.live.ac.uk or jai.bhagat.21@ucl.ac.uk

Jai Bhagat teaching three Neuronauts summer school students at SWC
June 2022 – The SWC Lecture by Professor Emily Murphy

We were delighted to host the annual SWC Lecture in-person again this year for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Professor Emily Murphy, University of California Hastings College of the Law, spoke about a simple but radical idea she calls Collective Cognitive Capital: that we can and should be using brain and behavioural science to evaluate public policy decisions by how they affect the cognitive and emotional functioning of the people. The lecture was also live-illustrated by Alex Cagan. The SWC was proud to welcome colleagues across UCL and members of the broader London community, including students taking part in the Social Mobility Foundation and In2research programmes. Watch the full recording of the lecture on YouTube 

May 2022 – Social Mobility Foundation Careers Carousel

On 26 May, Zane Mitrevica, PhD student in the Murray lab, participated in the online Social Mobility Foundation Careers Carousel to speak with secondary students interested in careers in STEM. She shared what got her into neuroscience, her routine as a neuroscientist including the highs and lows, and the skills she uses on a daily basis. Zane also discussed the reasons we use mice in neuroscientific research, during which the students were excited to hear about her experiments in detail. Read more of stories from our PhD students

Social Mobility Foundation logo

May 2022 – SWC visits William Perkin High School

On 6 May, we participated in Big Bang at School by visiting the William Perkin CofE High School to share our enthusiasm for neuroscience with students. PhD students, researchers, and staff prepared hands-on activities to engage students. These included a cerebellar adaptation experiment, Mindflex game, arm control demonstration, and more. We look forward to future visits to London schools!

William Perkin Big Bang collage
April 2022 – Baytree Centre visits SWC

On 5 April, we hosted a careers event for young people from the Baytree Centre, a social inclusion charity for women and girls based in Brixton, South London. Following an opening talk, the students had chance to tour our facilities and meet with PhD students, researchers and Professional and Scientific staff to learn about different careers in neuroscience.

Collage of photos of young people from Baytree visiting SWC and interacting with SWC PhD students, Professional and Scientific Staff
April 2022 – In2research Away Day

On 2 April, we hosted the first In2research Away Day, where In2research participants met face-to-face after a successful online mentoring programme. Along with networking opportunities, participants enjoyed a keynote talk from Dr Mark Richards, Senior Teaching Fellow, Imperial College London, and a workshop led by Simon To from Students’ Union UCL. Read the full story

Image credit: Amanda Summons Creative

March 2022 – Brain Awareness Week

Every March, Brain Awareness Week helps foster public enthusiasm and support for neuroscience.

To celebrate this year, we launched a range of activities including a virtual scavenger hunt in our facilities, neuroscience polls and images of the brain. The virtual scavenger hunt provides clues to equipment in our Advanced Microscopy, Neurobiological Research Facility, Advanced Manufacturing FabLab, and MakerSpace that enables neuroscience research. Neuroscience polls invite participants to join the conversation on various topics with leading neuroscientists. Our images of the brain showcase the behind-the-scenes wonders of conducting experimental neuroscience research.

Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram to catch-up on the activities!

September 2021 – Biology Week Neuroscience Quiz

In support of Biology Week, a yearly celebration organised by the Royal Society of Biology, we launched our 2021 Neuroscience Quiz. To help get their brains prepared, participants were encouraged watch our animation on YouTube about how neuroscientists are discovering the way the brain gives rise to behaviour, and read our blog post on 13 fascinating facts about the brain from leading neuroscientists.

In addition to sharing with our social media followers, several local schools in Camden took part in the quiz, which was also made available on the education resource platform Tes. The quiz was further shared through our partners including the Social Mobility Foundation, In2science and Nuffield. Thanks to all who took part and you can check-out the results of this challenge here!

Neuroscience Quiz Biology Week
May 2021 – Social Mobility Foundation Careers Carousel

On 25 May 2021, Ali Haydaroglu and Nicole Vissers, PhD students at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, took part in an online event organised by the Social Mobility Foundation for secondary school students interested in career options available within the Biology and Chemistry sectors. The college students were given the opportunity to question Ali and Nicole about their experiences in neuroscience and their advice on the skills required to succeed in the sector.

Ali and Nicole shared their fascination with studying the complexity of the brain. They also discussed their favourite parts of doing a PhD, the requirements to get into neuroscience and the types of career option available after a PhD. Read more about pursuing a PhD in neuroscience
 

Social Mobility Foundation logo

March 2021 - Brain Awareness Week

Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is a global campaign that takes place every March to foster public enthusiasm and support for neuroscience. While we were unable to host in-person activities for BAW this year, we shared our science online through launching new content on our website and across social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram).

On March 15 we launched a new video answering one of the questions our neuroscientists often get asked: is it true, you only use 10% of your brain? Share our video to help us dispel this myth!

Also as part of our BAW 2021 activities, Nicole Vissers, PhD student, Hofer lab, shared her journey in science so far and her advice to those interested in pursuing a PhD in neuroscience. Read more in this Q&A.

Nicole Vissers quotation "Follow your curiosity and don't let anything stop you from doing what you're interested in!"

April 2020 - The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre Health and Engagement Award at the Big Bang Competition

After the unfortunate cancellation of the Big Bang Fair in March 2020, the SWC was delighted to award two groups of students competing in the Big Bang Competition with the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre Health and Engagement Award. The winning teams were from the Simon Balle All-Through School in Hertfordshire and the Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge. The Simon Balle students’ project, entitled “Can Teeny Changes Change the Canteen”, attempted to make their school healthier through nudge psychology. The students from Hills Road designed a device to better diagnose and treat repetitive strain injury in their ‘smart glove’ project. Read more about the students and the award here.

Big Bang Competition logo
January 2020 - Sonja Hofer visits LAE Tottenham

On 16 January, SWC Group Leader Sonja Hofer visited the London Academy of Excellence Tottenham to talk to year 13 students about neuroscience and the scientific process. After giving a lecture to the entire year group, Sonja was joined for lunch by six university-bound students intending to study science and medicine.

Sonia Hofer visiting LEA Tottenham
December 2019 - SWC Annual Lecture, by Professor Alice Roberts

On 6 December 2019 Professor Alice Roberts visited the SWC to give a lecture entitled ‘The Origins of Culture: Archaeological evidence for the emergence of modern human behaviour’ as part of the centre’s SWC Annual Lecture series. Alice is a biological anthropologist, television presenter, and professor of public engagement. The SWC was proud to welcome colleagues across UCL and members of the broader London community, including students working with the Social Mobility Foundation.

Alice Roberts holding a skull

Image credit: University of Birmingham

October 2019 - Experimental Stories Workshop

The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre played host to a workshop co-organised by Wellcome and the BBC. Over two days of brainstorming, top researchers and radio producers collaborated on pitches for radio shows or miniseries focusing on communicating science.

Experimental Stories Workshop
Spring 2019 - Dear Neuroscience

The SWC hosted a series of ‘Dear Neuroscience’ events where artists, crafters, parents and neuroscientists joined forces to co-create explorations of neuroscience "in the wild". Neuroscience research today focuses heavily on studying nervous systems in sterile and predictable environments, but brains evolved in the messy, unpredictable world full of the unknown and the unexpected. 

Neuroscience now has the technology to complement laboratory research with fieldwork, which we believe to be crucial for understanding the human mind. “Dear Neuroscience” provided the opportunity for artists, crafters and parents of young children, who have each refined a highly motivated and skillfully observant relationship with wild neural phenomena, to share their questions, insights, and hopes with the neuroscience community. 

Find out more about the Dear Neuroscience Touch and Proprioception Event on Friday 24 May

May 2019 - Big Bang @ School Event

On 10 May 2019, SWC PhD students, researchers and staff engaged in a Big Bang @ School Event at William Perkin High School in Greenford, West London. Year 10 students took part in an interactive neuroscience quiz debunking common myths about the brain and then rotated through three different activities including a robot demonstration, a microfluidics exercise and the chance to control someone else's arm with their brain!

SWC students and staff teach secondary school students
March 2019 - Brain Awareness Week

As part of Brain Awareness Week (March 11-17, 2019) we launched an animation on the research questions we focus on at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre. We also shared 13 fascinating facts about the brain from leading neuroscientists and 5 common myths about neuroscience.

January 2019 - Westminster Kingsway Lab Tour

A-Level Psychology and Biology students from local college Westminster Kingsway visited the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre in January for a lab tour. Following an introductory neuroscience talk, the students met with researchers, visited the labs, the microscopy facility and the fabrication workshop. They also had the chance to see and hear the electrical activity from their brain when tensing their arm muscle and tried out controlling someone else's arm with their brain! 

Westminster Kingsway College Students Lab Tour
December 2018 - Public Lecture, by Professor Daniel Dennett

American philosopher, writer and cognitive scientist Professor Daniel Dennett gave the SWC Public Lecture 2018 titled 'Answering the Hard Question by Composing the Inner Witness'. Over 140 people attended this lecture including local students on the Social Mobility Foundation programme. Read more

September 2018 - New Scientist Live

The SWC exhibited a range of interactive demonstrations at New Scientist Live this year including visual illusions, Flavour SenseNation activities, a VR demo and jelly brain dissections. Find out more about our stand.

New Scientist Live Volunteers
July 2018 - Social Mobility Foundation Tour

The SWC recently hosted a group of students from the Social Mobility Foundation programme, which is open to students across the UK who are eligible for Free School Meals, or will be the first generation in their families to attend university having attended a school with a significant proportion of pupils on FSM, and who are predicted at least ABB at A-Level and have obtained at least five A grades at GCSE.

After a short talk on how the brain works, the students were taken on tours of the different labs in the building and shown demonstrations on anatomy, innate behaviour, virtual reality (VR) and advanced manufacturing. Finally, they attended lunch with students, staff and researchers at the SWC where discussions continued. 

Ed Bracey talk to students
June 2018 - Orchestrating the Brain

In collaboration with FitzFest, a local community music and culture festival, the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre was pleased to present ‘Orchestrating the brain’ a stimulating workshop exploring the fusion of music and neuroscience.

The vision behind the event sprung from conversations between musicians and neuroscientists and the shared concepts of neurons in the brain functioning like instruments in an orchestra, but with one perplexing difference – as far as we know, there is no ‘conductor’ in the brain.
 

 

Through a series of interactive exercises, musicians and neuroscientists worked together to delve into the connections between music and neuroscience and even attempted to play brain activity data generated by the SWC researchers as if they were notes on a player piano.

After a lively panel discussion, both musicians and neuroscientists were left with a many more questions to explore including: Why is it easier to remember words when set to music? Do certain notes have specific effects on brainwave frequencies and emotions? Which (if any) animals respond emotionally to music?

April 2018 - Brain Camp Kosovo

A group of five PhD students from the SWC led a week-long intensive neuroscience programme in Kosovo with the goal of motivating and inspiring young people to invest their time in science.

Thanks to the Kosovan Ambassador to the UK, the SWC collaborated with ATOMI, an organization that identifies and supports children with extraordinary intelligence (IQ 140 and above, 99.6 percentile rank – top 0.4% of the population). 

The week long programme was a great success and also gave the students a chance to ask the SWC some challenging questions on the brain including: Why do we sleepwalk? What is synaesthesia? What happens when we have anxiety or panic attacks? What happens when we experience adrenaline? How plastic is the mature brain? Where do memories get stored and how are they retrieved? Are there differences between an average person’s brain and Einstein’s brain? How does the brain represent the passing of time? 

Neuroscience Notebook
March 2018 - Brain Bee

The SWC was pleased to host the London Brain Bee championship during Brain Awareness Week 2018. The Brain Bee competition brings together secondary school students aged 14-19 and aims to inspire and motivate participants to learn more about the brain and explore potential careers in neuroscience.
 

 

After a welcome session, where the SWC launched the first of a series of Neuropeople videos, offering advice to students interested in neuroscience, the students completed a multiple choice quiz on a range of topics including: intelligence, emotion, memory, sleep, vision, hearing, sensation and a number of neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke, schizophrenia, epilepsy, depression and addiction.

There was also a series of practical demonstrations over lunchtime including a jelly brain dissection, visual illusions and an interactive activity exploring the hidden science behind our appreciation of food. These were followed by some fascinating talks on careers in neuroscience.

Finally, the excitement continued with a nail-biting "spelling bee" style final round. After as tense tie-breaker for the top place, the final results were announced and the winners went through to the National Brain Bee competition.

Jelly brain dissection
March 2018 - Neuropeople

The recent boom in allegations of ‘fake news’ has driven trust in experts to an all-time low. To try to encourage more confidence back into the scientific community, the SWC created a series of ‘Neuropeople’ videos where neuroscientists were asked questions on free will, brain hacks, advice for those interested in neuroscience and the future of the field. 

The films featured experts from the SWC, Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, King's College London, Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute and are all available on our YouTube channel.
 

November 2017 - SWC Annual Lecture, by Professor Frans de Waal

Professor Frans de Waal captivated attendees of the 2017 SWC Annual Lecture on Animal Emotions and Empathy. Open to all, including local secondary school students, Professor de Waal gave a fascinating history of the study of emotions followed by an enlightening discussion of empathy, consolation and emotional contagion.

September 2017 - New Scientist Live

The SWC exhibited at New Scientist Live 2017, sharing our science with an engaged and curious audience of over 30,000 people. Our stand included anatomy and VR demonstrations along with a video on what neural circuits are and some of the techniques we use at the SWC to try to understand them. 
 

March 2017 - Brain Awareness Week

As part of BAW - a global campaign to increase public awareness of the progress and benefits of brain research - children from years 5 and 6 of All Souls Primary School in Fitzrovia visited the SWC to find out more about how the brain works. The children took part in a range of hands-on activities including jelly brains and an electrophysiology experiment.

March 2017 - Rewired: the Brain, Art and Innovation

Members of the SWC Public Engagement Network took part in an inspiring evening featuring connections between neuroscience, art and health. Group leader Dr Adam Kampff presented a talk on enhancing intelligence with virtual reality, while others engaged audience members with our research, using a QR code web link on one of our squeezy brains.
 

Squeezy brain
December 2016 - SWC Annual Lecture, by Sir David Attenborough

Sir David Attenborough gave the inaugural Annual Lecture on 7 December 2016 at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre. His talk 'Beauty and The Beasts' focused on the aesthetic sensation in birds. 

Over 140 people attended this public event, including local community members from Fitzrovia as well as secondary school groups from Camden.

You can see part of the lecture on our YouTube channel.
 

December 2016 - SWC Lab Tour for Schools

Students from the UCL Academy and Regent High School visited the SWC and were given a tour of the laboratories ahead of hearing from a number of post docs and group leaders about the research they do and how it is relevant.