The GVR Khodadad Endowed Lecture Fund was established through the generosity of Ghahreman Khodadad and the GVR Khodadad Family Foundation. The purpose of the Fund is to support the Khodadad Lectures, a series of lectures and panel discussions organized by MindCORE. This series is intended to advance the discussion and rigorous study of excessive (pathological) selfishness and aggressive behavior. Khodadad Lectures feature researchers from local, national, and international institutions, aiming to foster deeper investigation into these critical areas of neuroscience and social behavior. Nominations for speakers should be sent to pennmindcore@sas.upenn.edu.
Until 2025, the Khodad Lecture series was organized by Prof Martha Farah and the Center for Neuroscience and Society.
Past Speakers
- 2024: Luke Hyde, University of Michigan – “Mechanisms linking disadvantage to antisocial behavior: parents, neighborhoods, and the developing brain”
- 2023: Rebecca Waller, UPenn – “What can neuroscience tell us about how to treat callous-unemotional traits in children?”
- 2022: Stephen Morse, UPenn – “Psychopathy and criminal law: a role for neuroscience?”
- 2021: Kristin Brethel-Haurwitz, Postdoc at Penn/NIH – “The neuroscience of selfishness, altruism and wellbeing”
- 2020: Robert Sapolsky, Stanford – CNS Book Club Author Appearance: “Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst”
- 2019: Joe Kable, UPenn and Ted Brodkin, UPenn – “The neurobiology of selfishness in mouse and man”
- 2018: Molly Crockett, Yale – “From selfish to selfless: psychopharmacology of human altruism”
- 2017: James Blair, Boys Town National Research Hospital – “The Development of Neuro Cognitive Systems Underpinning Callous-Unemotional Traits and Antisocial Behavior”
- 2016: Peter Hatemi, Penn State – “Political Science in the Neurobiological Revolution: Genes, Brains, Environments, Self-Interest and Behavior”
- 2015: Adrian Raine, UPenn – “The Neuroscience of Selfishness: Psychopathy as an Initial Model”
- 2014: Susan Dymecki, Harvard Med – “A Specialized Subtype of Serotonergic Neuron Shapes Social Behavior in Mice”
- 2013: Rebecca Saxe, MIT – “Intergroup Conflict and Conciliation: Insights from Psychology and Neuroscience”
- 2012: Frans de Waal, Emory University – “Prosocial Primates: Selfish and Unselfish Motives