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About

About the Institute for Applied Neuroscience

The Institute for Applied Neuroscience (IAN) is a pioneering organization dedicated to bridging the gap between cutting-edge neuroscience research and its application in various sectors, both public and private. Our mission is to use the latest scientific insights to help improve decision-making processes, create healthier communities, and drive evidence-based policy reform.

Our Leadership and Vision

Co-founded by Dr. Melina Uncapher, a MacArthur Scholar and esteemed neuroscientist, the Institute's work is rooted in her groundbreaking research at Stanford Memory Lab. Dr. Uncapher’s studies on how human memory affects the criminal justice system have provided critical insights for judges and attorneys dealing with biases in eyewitness identification, as well as the use of neuroimaging to differentiate between true and false memories or even detect concealed memories.

Building on this research, the Institute aims to extend these scientific discoveries into other areas, including:

Healthcare: Enhancing patient safety, improving doctor-patient communication, and aiding patient decision-making through a better understanding of how the brain processes information.

Education: Addressing challenges like motivation to learn, information overload, and enhancing student-teacher communication through neuroscience-informed strategies.

Law Enforcement and Juvenile Justice: Applying brain science to create more effective and fair interventions in policing and juvenile justice systems.

Leadership and Business: Supporting leaders in government, community organizations, healthcare, and corporate environments to create high-trust, high-performance cultures by aligning leadership practices with human behavioral science.

Bridging Science and Society

At IAN, we are committed to bringing together scientists and thought leaders from a wide range of fields to spark dialogue and collaboration. We focus on:

Identifying gaps where current policies and practices conflict with established neuroscientific principles.

Generating evidence-based solutions that ensure sustainable, ethical, and effective practices in policy and everyday life.

Training leaders on the implementation of these solutions, ensuring that science-based approaches take root in sectors such as healthcare, education, and law enforcement.

Co-founders Rick Foster and Greg Hicks bring nearly two decades of experience as organizational strategists, having led high-impact behavioral programs across seven continents. Their work emphasizes the importance of translating research findings into practical strategies that organizations can use to foster healthy, high-performing cultures.

Our Commitment to Everyday Neuroscience

Beyond institutional change, IAN is dedicated to empowering individuals with actionable, neuroscience-based strategies to improve daily life. We offer science-backed advice on simple habits, lifestyle choices, nutrition, and nootropics that support cognitive health and performance. Through our programs, we aim to give individuals the tools they need to make informed decisions about their own well-being.

By turning complex neuroscience into practical, accessible knowledge, the Institute for Applied Neuroscience is leading the way in improving lives, communities, and institutions through science.

Science for good: science is now at the heart of everything we must do to save our world. Institute for Applied Neuroscience puts science to work, for real-world impact.

IAN is an independent, nonprofit research and training organization. Our neuroscientists and organizational strategists connect with thought leaders in public and private sectors to solve critical social issues. Our mission is to give people and organizations the tools to live a better life by understanding the mind.

The Problem

Many discoveries about how and why people behave the way they do remain siloed in academia.

The result is policy and practice that can be divorced from known principles of human behavior.

Our Solution

We provide a bridge for the public and private sectors to gain access to information generated by academic researchers, to provide resources and programs that support evidence-based decision-making.

What this looks like

As a MacArthur Scholar, co-founder Dr Melina Uncapher's work in the Stanford Memory Lab helps inform decision-making by judges and attorneys confronted with issues related to how human memory impacts the criminal justice system, such as biases in eyewitness identification, or whether neuroimaging technology can detect true from false memory or even concealed memories.

The aim of the Institute is to extend this work into other areas of the public and private sectors, such as:

  • Healthcare (Patient safety, Doctor-patient communication, Patient decision-making)
  • Education (Motivation to learn, Information overload, Student-teacher communication)
  • Law enforcement and juvenile justice
  • Local, national, global business
  • Leadership (government, community, healthcare, corporate, nonprofit)

We aim to create dialogue between scientists and thought leaders in the public and private sectors in order to:

  • Identify areas where policy and practice runs in opposition to known principles of human behavior
  • Generate programmatic options to ground policy and practice in sustainable, evidence-based behaviors
  • Train thought leaders in optimal and sustainable implementation of such evidence-based practices

A successful interface between science and society requires highly skilled strategists who can identify information gaps and deliver programs to decision-makers in the public and private sectors. Co-founders Rick Foster and Greg Hicks are organizational strategists with close to 20 years of experience delivering high-impact programs grounded in their research on human behavior across seven continents. As such, they are well-positioned to generate and deliver programs that translate research discoveries into the 'how' of creating evidence-based policy reform, and high-trust, high-performance cultures for healthy communities and effective organizations.

Outreach

As a public benefit organization, we are committed to disseminating information about how and why people behave the way they do to the public in a highly accessible manner. Dr Kevin Weiner directs the Public Communication arm of the Institute, creating brain-based interactive online platforms that are tailored to multiple ages and learning styles. Our goal is to be the most highly trusted resource for parents, educators, students, and journalists to understand the human brain and its behavior.

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