Virtual Connection and Mentorship Sessions

Neuroethics 2026
Schedule
Stanford
Lucca
Stellenbosch
Registration

The Neuroethics 2026 conference will include a set of three 1-hour Virtual Connection and Mentorship Sessions the week of April 7-10, 2026. The sessions will be held at different times of the day to optimize opportunities for mentees and mentors in various regions around the world to connect in an open house style format with breakout rooms.

You must be registered for the conference to participate as a ‘mentee’. Be sure to sign up by Sunday, April 5 to secure a spot in one of the following sessions.

Sessions
Mentee Signup
Mentor Signup
Mentors

Sessions

Virtual Mentoring Session A

Meeting time provides more convenient overlap with participants located in Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

April 7 – 3:00–4:00am PDT · 6:00-7:00am EDT · 7:00-8:00am ART/BRT · 12:00-1:00pm CEST/SAST · 6:00-7:00pm SGT · 8:00-9:00pm AEST / Time converter »

Leads: Olivia Matshabane, Stellenbosch University; Brian Earp, Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS); / Mentors »

Breakout room assignments:

Room 1: Olivia Matshabane, Soraya Seedat, George Chingarande
Room 2: Mohhadiah Rafique, Chinyem Nkemjika Ighodaro, Eunice Kamaara
Room 3: Andrea Lavazza, Federico Gustavo Pizzetti
Room 4: Debra Mathews, Brian Earp, Diego Borbón
Room 5: Nicole Martinez-Martin, Katherine Bassil

Virtual Mentoring Session B

Meeting time provides more convenient overlap with participants located in Asia, Oceania and the Americas.

April 8 – 5:00-6:00pm PDT · 8:00-9:00pm EDT · 9:00-10:00am ART/BRT
April 9 – 2:00-3:00am CEST/SAST · 8:00-9:00am SGT · 10:00-11:00am AEST / Time converter »

Leads: Abel Wajnerman Paz, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; John Noel Viana, The Australian National University / Mentors »

Room 1: Adrian Carter, John Noel Viana
Room 2: Nicole Martinez-Martin, Debra Mathews
Room 3: Abel Wajnerman Paz, Ana Guadalupe Olvera Arellano, Alejandro Pacheco
Room 4: Francis X. Shen, Reina Magistro Nadler

Virtual Mentoring Session C

Meeting time provides more convenient overlap with participants located in the Americas, Europe and Africa.

April 9 – 10:00-11:00am PDT · 1:00-2:00pm EDT · 2:00-3:00pm ART/BRT · 7:00-8:00pm CEST/SAST
April 10 – 1:00-2:00am SGT · 3:00-4:00am AEST / Time converter »

Lead: Diego Borbón, Universidad Externado de Colombia / Mentors »

Room 1: Carlos Amunátegui Perelló, Diego Borbón
Room 2: Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz, Olivia Matshabane
Room 3: Nicole Martinez-Martin, Kristin Kostick-Quenet
Room 4: Debra Mathews, Karola Kreitmair, Laura Cabrera
Room 5: Michelle T. Pham, Lea Witkowsky
Room 6: Federico Gustavo Pizzetti, Reina Magistro Nadler

Sign up to participate in one of these connection and mentoring sessions. This opportunity is only available to students, trainees, and early career professionals who are registered for the Neuroethics 2026 conference. Please note that we may need to limit signups if we receive overwhelming participation.

We are currently seeking professionals with neuroethics expertise (mentors) to share with session participants (mentees). This is only a 1-hour commitment to provide advice and mentoring to students and early-career professionals. Volunteer mentors should sign up to host a breakout room at one of the available times. We plan to have two mentors for each breakout room, so be sure to mention if you want to host with another specific person (who should also sign up as a mentor). Thank you for volunteering!

Mentor Signup

Mentors

Session A Mentors

Session Leader

Olivia Matshabane

Stellenbosch University
Co-Chair of Stellenbosch Hub

Dr. Matshabane is a Neuroethics Researcher and PI of the Africa Neuroethics Research Group through which she leads a multi-country study team focussed on conducting community-engaged neuroethics research in South Africa and Kenya. She is the Co-director of the Dana Foundation-funded African Neuroscience Neuroethics and Society Short Course at Stellenbosch University. Dr. Matshabane is the first South African receipient of the International Brain Research Organisation’s (IBRO) Rising Star Award and has also represented South Africa among the group of 24 international expert scientists appointed by the UNESCO Director-General to develop a recommendation on ethics of neurotechnology. She is the Ethics Lead of the Psychiatric Genomics Consoritium Africa Working Group and the South Africa representative in the African Brain Data Network (ABDN). She is the Chair of the Stellenbosch University Neuroethics Working Group. She is also a member of the International Brain Initiative’s (IBI) Cross-Cultural Neuroscience Working Group and the International Neuroethics Society (INS) representative to IBRO.

Session Mentors

Soraya Seedat

Stellenbosch University
Co-Chair of Stellenbosch Hub

Professor Soraya Seedat is a psychiatrist with more than 25 years neuroscience research experience in trauma/PTSD, anxiety disorders and neuroHIV, and research ethics (bioethics). Expertise: Research and publishing

George Chingarande

Stellenbosch University

George Rugare Chingarande, PhD. is the senior lecturer in the Division of Medical Ethics and Law. He was a Visiting Fellow in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Department of Bioethics. He holds a PhD degree in Neuroscience , an MSc degree in Biological Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an MBA from DeMonfort university (UK).

Mohhadiah Rafique

Africa Neuroethics Research Group, Stellenbosch University

My scholarship sits at the intersection of psychology, neuroethics, and mental health research, with a focus on schizophrenia, lived experience, and how cultural and social contexts shape understandings of illness and recovery. Areas of expertise: Decoloniality, Neuroethics in Africa, Navigating academia as a first-gen student.

Chinyem Nkemjika Ighodaro

University of Benin Nigeria

Chinyem Nkemjika Ighodaro is a neurophysiologist specialising in the application of EEG neural signaling modality using data driven approaches to understanding brain function in Africa, research interests neurodegenerative diseases and EEG methodologies. Areas of expertise include: From lab work to life skills: Skills development, critical thinking and career value beyond publications

Eunice Kamaara

Moi University, Kenya

Eunice Kamaara is a researcher and ethicist with over thirty-year experience in holistic health participatory research, policy engagement, and practice; co-directs the African Character Initiation Programme, a Top 30 health innovation mentoring adolescents for holistic health and wellbeing, She is recognized by World Health Organization as a top social health expert. Areas of expertise: Gender, spirituality, and, health and wellbeing from African indigenous knowledge perspectives.

Andrea Lavazza

Pegaso University, Italy.

I am a moral philosopher and neuroethicist, also specializing in the ethics of new technologies (including AI). My research mainly focuses on the following subtopics within neuroethics: neurotechnologies, human enhancement, memory modulation, neural organoids, and neurolaw. I am also interested in the epistemology of expertise. Areas of discussion: the current landscape of neuroethics research, key topics in neuroethics, the research publication process, underexplored issues, and the present needs of the field.

Federico Gustavo Pizzetti

University of Milan, Italy (SINe-APS)

Federico Gustavo Pizzetti, born in 1976, graduated in Law at the University of Turin (Italy) in 1999, is Full Professor of Constitutional and Public Law at the University of Milan (Italy), where he also teaches Biolaw, since 2015. He is member of the University Council of the Milan University, and of the Ethics and Integrity Research Committee of the University of Piemonte Orientale. He has written more than 180 publications (among which, 8 books), and has been invited or selected speaker to more than 40 International conferences. He is a member of the International Forum of Teachers in Bioethics, medical ethics and medical law, UNESCO Chair in Bioethics; of the European Association of Health Law; of the Italian Society of Neuroethics and Philosophy of the Neurosciences (currently also President, for the second term); of the Italian Association of Constitutional Lawyers. He is also affiliated with the The Initiative on Neuroscience and the Law Project, Houston Baylor College of Medicine. He has been principal investigator of local units and investigator in two Next Generation EU-PNRR Project (SERICS, REFERENCES) and principal investigator of local unit in a PRIN Project (ELVIS). His research areas are about the End-of-Life Decisionmaking Law, the Constitutional Law and Neurosciences, the Active aging Duties of public health.

Debra Mathews

Johns Hopkins University
President of the International Neuroethics Society

I am a human geneticist by training whose academic work focuses on ethics and governance issues raised by emerging technologies, with particular focus on neuroscience, genetics, stem cell science, synthetic biology, and artificial intelligence. In addition to my academic work, I have worked in multiple capacities in science policy. Much of my current research is at the intersection of the areas of biology in which I work and artificial intelligence. Additional areas of expertise: engagement with policy; grant writing; promotion and tenure as an interdisciplinary scholar.

Diego Borbón

Universidad Externado de Colombia, Professor & Researcher at the Center for Studies on Genetics and Law, Director of the Research Group in Biological Sciences and Law, Universidad Externado de Colombia. Expertise: neurolaw, neurorights, neuroscience and AI regulation, neuroethics, free will, consciousness, philosophy of mind, philosophy of physics, criminology, prison abolition, mass incarceration

Nicole Martinez-Martin

Stanford University, Center for Biomedical Ethics

Nicole Martinez-Martin is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Center of Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University. My background is in law and anthropology, with particular areas of research that include AI & Psychiatry/Mental Health; equity in neurotechnology; Global Mental Health; Digital Mental Health. Areas of expertise: AI; Neurotech and Justice.

Katherine Bassil

University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU)
Neuroethics Today

Dr. Katherine Bassil is a neuroscientist turned neuroethicist and neuroethics communicator. She has extensive research experience at the intersection of neuroscience, ethics, and communication. She is an assistant professor in neuroethics at the Julius Center, University Medical Center Utrecht(UMCU) in the Netherlands. She is also the founder of Neuroethics Today, an educational platform dedicated to raising awareness on neuroethics worldwide and democratizing neuroethics literacy. Areas of expertise: Science and Ethics Communication, Ethics of neurotechnology, ethics of digital mental health technologies, ethics of biomarkers.

Session B Mentors

Session Leaders

Brian Earp

Oxford-NUS Centre for Neuroethics
Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore

Associate Professor Brian D. Earp, PhD, is director of the Oxford-NUS Centre for Neuroethics and Society (OCNS) and the EARP Lab (Experimental Bioethics, Artificial Intelligence, and Relational Moral Psychology Lab) within the Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS). Brian is also an Associate Professor of Philosophy and of Psychology at NUS by courtesy. Areas of expertise: moral psychology, including human-AI relationships; philosophy of science, technology, and medicine; research ethics, reproducibility, and open science; ethics of human enhancement, psychedelic-assisted therapy, and artificial intelligence; philosophy of love, sex and gender; bodily autonomy and integrity, intersex and children’s rights.

Abel Wajnerman Paz

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

I am a philosopher specialized in neuroethics and the philosophy of neuroscience. I am interested in the bridge between conceptual and experimental neuroethics, focused on understanding the neurocognitive basis of fundamental ethical dimensions, such as autonomy, identity, psychological integrity and mental privacy, and how this can inform more precise regulations, norms and/or standards for neurotechnology development. Areas of expertise: influence of neurotechnology and neuroscientific research on autonomy, identity, psychological integrity and mental privacy, neurorights, different possible methodological approaches in neuroethics, publishing, job opportunities in South America.

John Noel Viana

The Australian National University

John Viana is a research fellow at the ANU, where he is developing an anti-racist neuroethics framework to promote epistemic justice and minority inclusion in health research. His PhD investigated ethical and societal issues associated with clinical trials of invasive neurosurgical procedures for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Areas of expertise: dementia, deep brain stimulation, racial diversity in brain and mental health research

Session Mentors

Francis X. Shen

Univ. of Minnesota
Mass General Hospital

I direct the Dana Foundation Career Network in Neuroscience & Society. Areas of expertise: I can provide mentorship on neurolaw, neuroethics, and broadly neuroscience and society.

Alejandro Pacheco

Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo

I am a legal scholar specializing in health law, constitutional law, and biolaw, with a PhD in Health Institutions Administration and experience in public health governance. My research explores the ethical and legal frameworks that regulate health systems and emerging biomedical and neurotechnological practices, with particular attention to bioethics and human rights. Areas of Expertise: Health Law; Constitutional Law; Biolaw; Bioethics; Health Legislation and Regulation.

Ana Guadalupe Olvera Arellano

Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo

I am a legal scholar working at the intersection of law, bioethics, and emerging technologies. My research focuses on neuroethics, neuro-rights, informed consent, and the implications of neurotechnologies for autonomy, personal identity, and mental privacy. Areas of Expertise: Data protection, Privacy (health), Biolaw, Neurolaw.

Adrian Carter

Monash Bioethics Centre
Monash University

Professor Adrian Carter is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow on the responsible research and innovation of neuroscience and neurotechnology. He leads the Neuroscience and Society Group at the Monash Bioethics Centre and is an Adjunct Fellow of the School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University. Adrian is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Neuroethics (Springer) and has been an advisor to the World Health Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, European Union, Australian Government and United Nations. Areas of expertise: Responsible innovation; Stakeholder engagement; Publishing; Neurotechnologies; Mental Health and addiction; Research translation.

Reina Magistro Nadler

University of British Columbia

Reina Magistro Nadler is a PhD candidate in Law at the University of British Columbia, a longtime neuroethicist, and an erstwhile fellow (at Stanford’s Center for Law & the Biosciences) / judicial law clerk / JD course instructor. Her research spans most areas of law and neuroscience, with interdisciplinary connections to philosophy, sociology, political economy, and trans studies. Areas of expertise: neurotechnology in law; neuroenhancement & transhumanism; queer perspectives on neuroethics.

Nicole Martinez-Martin

Stanford University, Center for Biomedical Ethics

Debra Mathews

Johns Hopkins University
President of the International Neuroethics Society

Session C Mentors

Session Leaders

Diego Borbón

Session Mentors

Laura Cabrera

Pennsylvania State University

Neuroethics/Tech ethics (background in engineering and applied ethics), neuromodulation, neuroenhancement, responsible neurotechnology, BCIs, public engagement, cross-cultural aspects. Areas of expertise: neuromodulation, neuroenhancement, responsible neurotechnology, BCIs, public engagement, cross-cultural aspects.

Carlos Amunátegui Perelló

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Professor of private law and legal history. One of the promoters of neurorights constitutional reform in Chile. Areas of expertise: Neurorights AI and Law; Legal History; Comparative Law.

Kristin Kostick-Quenet

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy
Baylor College of Medicine

Dr. Kristin Kostick-Quenet is a medical anthropologist and bioethicist based at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. Her neuroethics work focuses on ethical and translational considerations for integrating multimodal AI and digital phenotyping into closed-loop neuromodulation, and explores how emergent AI technologies like agentic AI and world models are transforming psychiatry and neurology research. Areas of expertise: research into neuromodulation and AI; research methods such as qualitative and mixed methods; clinical research-embedded neuroethics.

Karola Kreitmair

University of Wisconsin–Madison

Prof. Kreitmair is a philosopher-bioethicist, working in the US, whose research spans neuroethics, clinical ethics (including of AI), who works mainly in a normative, conceptual tradition. Areas of expertise: philosophical writing, clinical ethics.

Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz

Harvard Medical School / Mass General Brigham

Dr. Lázaro-Muñoz combines his background in neuroscience, law, and bioethics to examine ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of emerging technologies in neuroscience and genomics. To study these issues, he mainly uses embedded approaches such as participant-observation, in-depth interviews with stakeholders, surveys (national and international), and ethical, legal, and policy analysis. Dr. Lázaro-Muñoz received his PhD in Neuroscience from New York University; his JD and Master of Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania; and his BA in Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico. Areas of Expertise: translation of biotechnology into clinical care; neurotechnology; deep brain stimulation; post-trial issues in neural device studies; impact of neuromodulation on personality, mood, and behavior; artificial intelligence embedded in neurotechnology; genomics; polygenic scores, psychiatric genetics; return of results; genetics and the law; polygenic embryo screening or PGT-P; neuroethics; ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of genomics.

Lea Witkowsky

UC Berkeley Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public

I have a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology but have applied that knowledge to a subsequent career in scientific governance, ethics, and multi-perspective engagement. As Executive Director of the Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public at UC Berkeley, I build a transdisciplinary community of research and learning that breaks down barriers between disciplines and across academia and society, to work together to envision the futures we want our scientific advances to create. Expertise: Non-traditional academic careers, public engagement with ethics of science, regulatory and policy work.

Michelle T. Pham

Michigan State University

I am a philosopher that also does empirical research as well as community-based participatory research. I aim to promote practices in novel brain implant research that are fair and equitable towards human participants. Areas of expertise: Research, publishing, career advice, finding supportive mentors.

Olivia Matshabane

Stellenbosch University

Dr Olivia Matshabane is a research psychologist and neuroethics researcher. Her work focuses on the ethical, legal, social, and cultural implications of neuropsychiatric genomics and the neuroethical implications of new and emerging neurotechnologies. Areas of Expertise: equitable neuroethics collaborations; empirical neuroethics research methodologies; identifying supervisors or mentors in area of interest.

Sessions

Mentee Signup

Mentor Signup

Mentors

Session A Mentors

Session Leader

Olivia Matshabane

Session Mentors

Session B Mentors

Session Leaders

Session Mentors

Session C Mentors

Session Leaders

Session Mentors