Research at the intersection of psychology and society

Bio:

Robin Mazumder is an environmental neuroscientist with a keen interest in understanding how living in cities impacts wellbeing. His PhD research, funded by the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, applied wearable technology in real and immersive settings to examine psychological and physiological responses to the urban environment. His research interests are informed by his clinical experience as a mental health occupational therapist working in the urban cores of Canadian cities.

Marrying his interest in urban wellbeing with his commitment to equity, in the recent academic textbook Global Reflections on COVID-19 and Urban Inequalities Robin proposed the concept Experiential Equity as an environmental neuroscientific framework to understand and measure the physiological and psychological consequences of intersectional disparities, such as racism and misogyny, experienced in urban environments.

In addition to his research, Robin is an outspoken advocate for urban design that supports wellbeing and has given more than 30 keynotes internationally on the topic. He was named Top 40 Under 40 by Avenue Magazine in 2014, an “Edmontonian to Watch” in 2017 by Metro Edmonton, and in 2018 was awarded the University of Waterloo’s President’s Community Impact Award in recognition of his leadership and advocacy.

Robin is passionate about science communication and has been interviewed by and written for major media publications, including the CBC, Huffington Post, Wired, and Vice. He is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Technical University of Berlin doing research in the emerging discipline of Neurourbanism, and is signed with literary agency Cooke-McDermid and writing a book for the general public on the implications of neurourbanism on pressing societal issues.