News

July 2021

The lab bids farewell to IsabelBrandon and Era.

June 2021

The lab welcomes our new lab technician Kirsten, new lab manager Emily and new UROPs Grace, Melyssa, Christian, Anna, and Shruti!

Congratulations to Ashley for accepting the CREOS (Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship) postdoc fellowship!

May 2021

The lab welcomes our new graduate student, Eric!

March 2021

The lab bids farewell to Akhil who is going to work for TikTok's ads integrity team at ByteDance. Congratulations Akhil!

January 2021

The lab welcomes new UROPs Hana and Claire!

July 2020

The lab welcomes our new lab technician Akhil and new lab manager Era!

June 2020

The lab bids a sad farewell to Ben who is going to start his MD-PhD program at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Congratulations Ben!

March 2020

The lab welcomes two new graduate students, Setayesh and Gal, and our new post-doc Shari!!

Congratulations to Hilary for accepting a position as a professor at the University of Edinburgh!

Livia was awarded a Henslow Research Fellowship at the University of Cambridge; congratulations Livia!

October 2019

The lab bids a sad farewell to Lindsey who is moving to San Diego to start her own lab at UCSD.

September 2019

The lab welcomes our new post-doc Freddy!

July 2019

The lab bids a sad farewell to Marika who is leaving MIT to begin as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley.

June 2019

Rebecca taught the Cognitive Neuroscience of Thought course at the Neuroscience School of Advanced Studies in Venice, Italy. Check out the photos!

High school students from Friends Central School in Phildalephia visit the Saxe Lab for an fMRI demo.

May 2019

Ursula Rose was born! Congratulations Ashley!

November 2018

Students from MCPHS University visit the Saxe Lab for an fMRI demo.

Rebecca received the BCS Committed to Caring Award for excellence in academic mentoring. CONGRATULATIONS!!!

August 2018

The lab says a sad farewell to Rania.

Congratulations to Stefano for becoming a professor at Boston College!

The lab welcomes our new post-doc Ashley Thomas!

July 2018

The lab says a sad farewell to Lyneé and A.J.

Sarah was born! Congratulations Lindsey!

June 2018

The lab welcomes new Lab Manager Ben!

The lab welcomes our new post-doc Marika Landau-Wells!

April 2018

CONGRATULATIONS to Dr. Hilary Richardson for successfully defending her brilliant thesis!

March 2018

Rebecca was a keynote tweeter for the Brain Twitter Conference!

The lab welcomes our new graduate student Halie Olson!

November 2017

The lab welcomes research assistant Rania!

September 2017

Congratulations to Lindsey on the acceptance of the lab's first NIRS paper! available here.

The lab says a sad farewell to Dorit.

Heather changes roles from lab manager to graduate student!

The lab welcomes back Livia as a post doc!

August 2017

Hilary's first first-authored paper accepted for publication! available here.

Congratulations to Lab Manager Lynee on her engagement!

The lab says a sad farewell to summer students Sam and Serena.

June 2017

Rebecca taught the course Social and Cognitive Neuroscience of Thought at the Neuroscience School of Advanced Studies in Italy.

Baby Thompson was born! Congratulations Todd!

Thinking about what others believe is hard work is a Science article that features Lindsey and her work with Susan Carey on the development of Theory of Mind and Executive Function.

May 2017

Rebecca received the BCS Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the BCS Award for Excellence in Graduate Mentoring. CONGRATULATIONS!!

Dorit's work on Autism has been featured in a Spectrum Podcast.

The lab says a sad farewell to Jane and Alexa.

April 2017

Rebecca was featured on an segment of Daily Planet talking about the infant brain.

Hilary was awarded the Whitaker Health Sciences Fund Fellowship. Congratulations!!!

February 2017

The lab says a sad farewell to Patricia and welcomes Jane.

A.J. and Heather travelled to DC to engage kids with current research at an MIT Connection Event.

The Saxelab hosted a Science Saturday for kids at the MIT Museum! Check out the pictures in the Lab Photo Album.

January 2017

Quanta Magazine and MIT news featured the Saxelab's infant neuroscience research, multiyear project that was published in Nature Communications.

December 2016

Peering into the Infant Mind, the feature story in the December issue of the MIT McGovern Institute quarterly newsletter, discussed the infant neuroimaging research in the Saxelab.

November 2016

Todd has joined us as a Scientist! Yay!!

October 2016

Rebecca's talk on Human Brain Development at the MIT Club of Boston was sold out!

August 2016

A sad farewell to Tyler who is leaving MIT to join Stanford in the fall where he will begin graduate school. CONGRATULATIONS!!

July 2016

The Saxe Lab celebrated its TEN Year Anniverssary with hiking and celebrity in Franconia, NH!

Congratulations to Grace, she is leaving us to start graduate school at Indiana University!!

June 2016

The Saxe Lab completed a week-long fMRI bootcamp taught by Rebecca that culminated in a trip to Whale Cove!

The Saxe Lab welcomed new Lab Manager and Pediatric Coordinater Lyneé!

Watch Baby Brains: Unlocking Our Humanity, a TEDx Cambridge talk by Rebecca.

March 2016

Tyler was awarded an NSF Fellowship! Congratulations!

The Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines released a new video about the CBMM summer research program. Rebecca and lab manager, Heather, are featured.

January 2016

Congratulations to Lindsey! Lindsey was honored with the 2015 Infinite Kilometer Award for routinely exceeding expectations and her outstanding contributions to the MIT research community.

December 2015

CONGRATULATIONS to Dr. Ben Deen for successfully defending his brilliant thesis!

November 2015

A mother and her son, a new image captured using MR technology by Rebecca was published in Smithsonian Magazine.

October 2015

Hilary and Rebecca host a preconference on Early development, conceptual change, and continuity: Insights from cognitive neuroscience at the biennial Cognitive Development Society conference in Columbus, Ohio.

August 2015

Saxelab made our Theory of Mind Group Maps publicly available in addition to the already available Saxelab stimuli sets and Theory of Mind Localizer on our website.

Multiple news outlets cover Marina and Hilary's paper including MIT news, The Guardian, Neuroscience news, John Hopkins, and Lab News.

July 2015

The lab bids a sad farewell to Nir, who is starting graduate school at Columbia!

Watch Rebecca at Smithsonian Magazine's 2015 Future Is Here Festival.

CONGRATULATIONS to Rebecca on her promotion to Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience!

June 2015

Rebecca appears in The Twilight Zone: BCS Edition at MIT.

May 2015

CONGRATULATIONS to Dr Amy Skerry for successfully defending her awesome thesis!

The Lab welcomes our new lab manager, Heather Kosakowski.

April 2015

Hilary won the Angus MacDonald Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Rebecca won the Arthur C. Smith Award for her service to the undergraduate population of MIT.

March 2015

Emile featured in New York Times Magazine article.

Congratulations to Dorit for winning the Cognitive Neuropsychology Student Travel Prize.

February 2015

Listen to Rebecca and Nancy Kanwisher in NPR's TED radio hour.

The lab succesfully managed to sing a German birthday song in a round for two lab members' birthday.

December 2014

CONGRATULATIONS to Dr Todd Thompson for successfully defending his awesome thesis

August 2014

CONGRATULATIONS to Dr Jorie Koster-Hale for successfully defending her awesome thesis!

The lab welcomes our new post-doc Stefano Anzellotti

July 2014

The lab bids a sad farewell to Julianne, who is starting grad school in U Chicago, and Hyo, who is starting her own lab in Stanford!

The Lab welcomes our new lab manager, Grace Lisandrelli.

Congratulations to Dorit who received an award for young/junior researcher (Heinz-Heckhausen-Jungwissenschaftler Preis) from the German Association for Psychology

June 2014

Mina's paper was featured in MIT news

Rebecca Q&A session in MIT Technology Review

Congratulations to Mina on her new position at Harvard!

February 2014

Hilary and Jorie both won the Angus MacDonald Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Dorit was awarded the Weber-Bosch-Price from the German 'Society for Research in Autism Spectrum Conditions.'

Rebecca was awarded the Troland Research award from the 'National Academy of Science.'

November 2013

Saxe lab assigns a desk to its two newest members.

September 2013

The lab welcomes our new post-docs Lindsey Powell and Dorit Kliemann.

August 2013

The lab bids a sad farewell to Nick, who is starting grad school at Stanford, and Adele, who is moving to the center of power in DC.

Swetha's first first-authored paper accepted for publication! available here.

Nick's first first-authored paper accepted for publication! available here.

June 2013

Watch Hyo being hooded.

An article about Saxelab's Empathy research appeared in the National Association of Social Workers newsletter

May 2013

The Lab welcomes our new lab manager, Nir Jacoby.

The Lab bids a sad farewell to Marina, starting as an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins, and Swetha, starting medical school at Yale University.

March 2013

The lab celebrates Hyo's many job offers!

Congratulations to Swetha for being accepted into the Yale School of Medicine!

Jorie publishes her first PNAS paper, available here.

February 2013

The SaxeLab goes to Quebec on a dogsledding expedition! See the photos here!

December 2012

Hyo's first Neuroimaging paper is published!

November 2012

Rebecca talks about her and Emile's work on conflict resolution in Scientific American.

Swetha is featured in MIT's "The Tech" playing a Saraswati veena for Diwali Night celebrations!

August 2012

The lab attends CogSci 2012 in Sapporo, Japan!

Congratulations to Marina for accepting a job at Johns Hopkins University!

Hilary changes role from pediatric fMRI coordinator to graduate student.

July 2012

Hyo successfully defends her thesis, and is now officially Dr. Gweon! (and remains in the lab as a post-doc).

The lab bids farewell to Mina, who is off to Carnegie-Mellon University to begin her tenure-track teaching position, as well as undergraduate student Hannah.

June 2012

The lab welcomes newest members Julianne Herts (joining us as co-lab manager / pediatric fMRI coordinator) and Adele Luta (as technical assistant)!

May 2012

The lab goes on a canoeing adventure on the Charles River!

Rebecca is awarded an R01 grant by the NIH!

March 2012

The lab goes trampoline-ing!

Rebecca is named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum! Press release here.

Emile publishes in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Read the paper here, and the news releases here.

Mina gives three talks in a mere three days!

February 2012

Emile is awarded a DARPA grant!

January 2012

Four Saxelab members submit papers and five submit abstracts to CogSci.

November 2011

The Saxelab welcomes its newest member, Clara Madrone Bruneau!

Tao gets a grant to fund research in Saxelab and Tennebaum Lab!

October 2011

Marina gets a grant funded and a paper accepted within 24 hours!

August 2011

The lab welcomes newest member Alex Paunov.

The lab embarked on their second three-day hiking trip in Franconia Notch State Park.

Liane awarded the Early Career Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Social Neuroscience by the Society for Social Neuroscience.

Hyo's first fMRI paper is accepted for publication.

June 2011

Congratulations to Mina for getting an NRSA from the NIH, and accepting a tenure-track position at Carnegie Mellon University!

The lab bids farewell to Liane, who is starting a tenure-track job at Boston College.

The lab bids farewell to James, who is starting graduate school at Boston College.

May 2011

Rebecca is awarded tenure at MIT.

Hyo publishes a paper in science.

March 2011

Read about Marina's reasearch on language in the visual cortex of the blind here, here, here, and here!

February 2011

Liane's work on the TMS, morality, and the rTPJ is featured on the Feb. 2 episode of NOVA's scienceNOW.

January 2011

The lab welcomes new post-doc Mina, joining us from Hasson Lab at Princeton.

The Saxe Lab's optimized ToM localizer is now available for download.

December 2010

Liane's study on moral reasoning with TMS is ranked on of Discover Magazine's top 100 stories of 2010.

The lab embarked on a trip to San Fransisco to talk science and present data.

A paper gets accepted which is: David's 1st first-authored paper, Jorie's 1st fMRI paper, Marina's 1st third-authored paper, and Rebecca's 40th peer-reviewed paper.

The lab bids farewell to Elizabeth, who is leaving to accept an Assistant Professor position at The University of Maryland.

October 2010

Marina starts scanning the brains of blind kids! Read about Marina's latest paper on blind adults here.

After 12 months of making, piloting, and re-making stimuli, Swetha finally gets to run her experiment in the fMRI.

Rebecca is honored by the MIT School of Science and recieves the 2010 Teaching Prize for Undergraduate Education

September 2010

The lab welcomes new graduate student Ben Deen to the lab.

August 2010

The lab bids farwell to David and Alek, who are both beginning graduate programs at Harvard University

July 2010

Emile publishes his first Journal of Neuroimaging paper, Attitudes towards the outgroup are predicted by activity in the precuneus in Arabs and Israelis

The lab embarks on a three-day hiking trip in Franconia Notch State Park

The lab is joined by their new Pediatric fMRI Coordinator, Hilary Richardson

June 2010

The lab is joined by ten summer undergraduates:
Ben van Buren
Swetha Dravida
James Dungan
AJ Durwin
Meghan Healey
Alex Margarite
Hannah Pelton
Jacquie Pigeon
Priyata Thapa
Lindsay Yazzolino

May 2010

The lab is joined by their new lab manager, Nick Dufour

April 2010

The lab is joined by new PhD student Jorie Koster-Moeller

Elizabeth Redcay gets a tenure-track job at Maryland!

Rebecca Saxe featured in PBS's The Human Spark.

March 2010

Hear Liane Young talk about our latest study, on changing people's moral judgments by stimulating their RTPJ. Or read more at BBC and MIT News.

February 2010

Liane Young gets a tenure-track job at Boston College, and gets three papers accepted for publication on split-brain patients, ventro-medial prefrontal cortex lesion patients, and TMS!

Rebecca speaks at the World Economic Forum, in Davos.

January 2010

Elizabeth Redcay and David Dodell-Feder have their first Saxelab paper accepted for publication.

September 2009

The Saxelab is joined by visiting student Agnieszka Pluta.

August 2009

Rebecca Saxe gives a TED Talk on how we read each other's minds.

June 2009

Marina's first paper on blind adults gets published: Language may be key to Theory of Mind.
Emile leaves for Palestine to study conflict resolution.
David and Liane find awesome new food truck by MIT medical.

May 2009

The Saxelab is joined by new technical assistant Alek Chakroff.

January 2009

Rebecca Saxe interview by Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative: Fine Tuning the Theory of Mind.

November 2008

Rebecca Saxe interviewed for Discover magazine in Unlocking Secrets and Powers of the Brain.

October 2008

Rebecca Saxe named one of Popular Science's 'Brilliant Ten' and featured in article The Infant's Philosopher.

September 2008

Rebecca Saxe quoted in New York Times article Gut Instinct's Surprising Role in Math.

June 2008

Rebecca Saxe featured in New York Times article Of Mice and Women.
Dorit Kliemann's first paper accepted for publication: Influence of prior record on moral judgement.
The Saxelab is joined by its newest and youngest member, Maya Ellenbogen.

May 2008

Liane Young granted her PhD.

April 2008

Rebecca Saxe awarded the 2008 Young Investigator Award at the 2008 CNS meeting.

February 2008

NOVA program, Ape Genius, features commentary by Rebecca Saxe on Mindreading and Shared Goals.

October 2007

Rebecca Saxe featured along with Nancy Kanwisher, Eric Kandel and Liz Phelps on Charlie Rose's From Freud to the mysteries of the human brain.

April 2007

Rebecca Saxe invited to New York Academy of Science New Vistas Series, hosted by Steve Pinker. See a clip of Rebecca talking about our research here.