ABOUT THIS EPISODE
In this episode, my guest is Prof. Tom Beckers. He is a professor of psychology at KU Leuven. His work focuses on the role of learning and memory in psychopathology, especially anxiety, addiction, and ADHD. As you will hear in the interview, he often emphasizes reflecting on one’s values when doing science and making those values a priority. He is passionate about his work and a really good communicator of it. I hope you’ll enjoy this episode as much as I did!
If you’re interested in specific parts, you can skip to them directly here:
01:00 Years in academia
01:20 Did you choose academia or did academia choose you? Neither.
06:10 Journey in his research field
8:30 Current research questions
13:00 New directions: Pavlovian compensation
17:30 Inspirations when doing research and finding new research questions
19:30 The biggest changes in academia: the good and the bad
25:30 Advice for young scientists
27:00 People in academia that he looks up to
28:00 Importance of “no egos” in science
32:50 Typical week of an academic
36:40 Four Loko Effect
