Tania Singer is the Director of the Department of Social Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, since 2010. After receiving her Ph.D. in Psychology in 2000 at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, she became a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the same institution and later at the Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience as well as at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in London. In 2006, she accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the University of Zurich and later as Inaugural Chair of Social Neuroscience and Neuroeconomics and Co-Director of the Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research. Her research focus is on the foundations of human social behavior and the neuronal, developmental, and hormonal mechanisms underlying social cognition and emotions (e. g, empathy, compassion, and fairness). Moreover, she investigates the psychological and neuroscientific effects of compassion and meditation training, and other mental training techniques. Prof. Singer has published her research work in many renowned journals (e.g., Science, Nature) and is the Principal Investigator of the ReSource project, a one year longitudinal mental training study. She holds a cooperation with Dennis Snower from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy on the topic of Caring Economics.
Tania Singer served on the Mind & Life Board of Directors from 2012 to 2018.
