Meet Our Team
We are a diverse, friendly, and collaborative group of curious minds and critical thinkers, passionate about rigorous, open, and impactful science. We value mutual respect, open dialogue, and the joy of discovery. Whether in the lab or over coffee, we believe science should be fun, transparent, and impactful. We are always excited to meet new colleagues, collaborators, and students who share these values.
Dr. Rotem Botvinik-Nezer
Principal Investigator
I am a cognitive neuroscientist interested in how beliefs are formed, updated, and influence behavior, perception, and health, at the individual and social levels. My academic journey started with a B.Sc. in psychology and biology with emphasis on neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. I then completed a direct Ph.D. program at the Sagol School of Neuroscience, also at Tel Aviv University, where I studied behavior change, brain plasticity, decision making, and analytical variability in neuroimaging.
After my Ph.D., I moved to Dartmouth College for a postdoc, focusing on belief updating, placebo effects, and expectation mechanisms, combining computational modeling, pain experiments, and neuroimaging.
Since the fall of 2024, I’ve been a senior lecturer (Assistant Prof.) at the Psychology Department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where I lead the RBN Lab. I am excited about better understanding belief updating and placebo effects, and translating this understanding into practical interventions that would make a real change in the world. I’m also passionate about open, reproducible science.
