Magazine staff

Stefanie Peykarjou

  Stefanie Peykarjou studied in Heidelberg, Germany, and Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, and is now Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at CFH Wiesbaden. She researches how cognitive processes and individual differences develop in early childhood, mainly by use of EEG. Furthermore, she is interested in how we can communicate effectively with children. At In-Mind, she blogs and is a co-editor of the German version.

Joop van der Pligt

Joop van der Pligt is a full professor of Social Psychology. His research focuses on risk perception and the acceptability of risks. Both health-related risks, as well as large scale societal risks recieved considerable attention in his research. Together with Frenk van Harreveld he studied causes and consequences of attitudinal ambivalence. His research also addresses risk communication and its impact on both the acceptability of risk and behavioral change.

Charikleia Lampraki

Charikleia is Editor for Developmental Psychology (Adulthood & Aging) and Head of Blog at the English version of In-Mind. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Geneva, specializing in lifespan developmental psychology, and specifically in (older) adulthood. She is also the scientific officer of the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Life Course Research LIVES. Her work focuses on the psychological processes that underlie resilience, adaptation, and identity development in the context of major life transitions, including bereavement, family reconfiguration, and aging-related sensory decline. She is particularly interested in loneliness, social connectedness, and their cognitive and emotional consequences, with a growing emphasis on the role of digital environments and identity tensions. Her research is methodologically grounded in longitudinal modeling, multilevel analysis, and large-scale secondary data, particularly from international datasets such as SHARE.

Brian Meier

Mary Ortega

Mary C. Ortega is a Ph.D. candidate in Media & Communication at Texas Tech University. Her research examines digital culture, public discourse on social platforms, media representation, and radical feminism. She has presented work on Latina identity, fatphobia in film, and platform governance. As a former journalist and communications professional, she also teaches public relations and media writing.  

Lieke Braadbaart

Dr. Lieke Braadbaart obtained her PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, investigating the neural correlates of complex manual and facial imitation using fMRI, and how these correlates might differ in young people with autism. Previous to this she had finished a BA in Liberal Arts & Sciences at Maastricht University, focusing on Social Science, after which she completed an MSc in Social Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Aberdeen, whereby her research on the imitation mechanisms at work during simultaneous EEG-fMRI resulted in her first two first-author publications.

Chiara Pecini

Chiara Pecini is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Education Sciences at the University of Genoa. Her main research interests concern gender-based violence and the sexual objectification of women in interpersonal relationships.

Silvia Moscatelli

Silvia Moscatelli (She/Her) is a Full Professor of Social Psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Bologna. Her research focuses on gender bias and inequality in the workplace, collective action for gender equality, sexualization of women, and gender-based violence.

Cameron Stuart Kay

Cameron Stuart Kay is a recent graduate from the University of British Columbia with a coursework concentration in social psychology. His research interests include evolutionary psychology as a framework for the study of abnormal behaviours, the exploration of non-pharmacological methods for increasing focus, memory, and general productivity, and the role of genes and culture in decision-making processes. He currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Jay Van Bavel

Jay Van Bavel is an Associate Professor of Psychology & Neural Science at New York University, an affiliate at the Stern School of Business in Management and Organizations, and Director of the Social Perception and Evaluation Lab. He completed his PhD at the University of Toronto and a postdoctoral fellowship at The Ohio State University before joining the faculty at NYU in 2010. From neurons to social networks, Jay’s research examines how collective concerns—group identities, moral values, and political beliefs—shape the mind and brain. This research has received several awards, including the Young Investigator Award for distinguished contributions in social neuroscience from the Society for Social Neuroscience, the Young Scholars Award for outstanding achievements in social and personality psychology from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science. You can follow Jay on Twitter @jayvanbavel