Kicking off the new academic year with our very first group photo for Theme 1: hashtag#Language & hashtag#Communication

For three years, I’ve had the privilege of leading this theme and working together with amazing colleagues from the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, and Radboud University Centre for Language Studies. While this picture only captures a handful of us, Theme 1 now unites some 200 researchers across the network.

What makes this theme unique is the lifelong arc of language we study: from hashtag#babies learning their very first hashtag#words, to hashtag#multilingual classrooms, to the hashtag#neurobiology of language in health and hashtag#brain hashtag#pathologies such as hashtag#stroke hashtag#tumours and hashtag#Parkinson’s — and everything in between.

Over the past years, this community has been very active and impactful:

 📚 Publishing over 1,000 scientific papers 

 🕹️ Creating the Letterprins literacy app, now helping 16,000 kids every day

 🎭 Reaching society through podcasts, festivals, theatre tours, and the Brain Museum

 🤖 Pioneering new methods with AI, VR, and dual-EEG to study language in real-world contexts

The photo might look calm, but behind it stands a powerhouse of science, creativity, and collaboration. I’m proud of what we’ve built together, and excited for what’s ahead - Stay tuned!

(Not pictured: Many colleagues, countless coffees ☕, and many lively debates!)

hashtag#Language hashtag#Communication hashtag#Collaboration hashtag#Brain hashtag#Cognition hashtag#Behaviour hashtag#Neuroscience hashtag#linguistics hashtag#psycholinguistics hashtag#Nijmegen