Prof. Dr. Tania Singer

Tania is the Director of the Department of Social Neuroscience at the in Leipzig 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 went to the University of Zurich to accept a position as Assistant Professor 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 she is the Principal Investigator of the ReSource project. The eBook Compassion. Bridging Practice and Science has just been published and can be downloaded free of charge. It summarizes fascinating results of the science of compassion, but also describes training programs and practical experiences.

Tania Singer also examines how biology and psychology can inform economic decision-making in addressing global problems also by presenting her ideas of a caring economics at the World Economic Forum or the Global Economic Symposium. In her function of Board Member of the Mind and Life Institute (situated in Hadley, USA) she has hosted the Mind and Life Institute XX Conference "Altruism and Compassion in Economic Systems" with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Zurich in 2010, and is currently also a Member in the Mind and Life Europe Committee.