Dr. Anderson Mora Cortes, Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience at Erasmus University College has been announced as the winner of the 2025 Erasmus University Education Prize, for organising 'Brain Awareness Week' events in Rotterdam. This event brings university and city together, sharing the expertise of teachers, researchers and students with the citizens of Rotterdam. Anderson received the prize during the Opening of the Academic Year 2025-2026.
Connecting the university with the citizens of Rotterdam, to educate, entertain and inspire was the motivation behind the first Rotterdam edition of global Brain Awareness Week in 2023. This was a week-long series of activities held at Erasmus University College (EUC) and in the Rotterdam Public Library, designed to provide information and education to Rotterdammers young and old, and spark an interest within them about how our brains work. The programme has expanded, broadened and deepened since, and in March 2025 the third consecutive Brain Awareness Week was held.
Brain Awareness Week
The Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is a global initiative that for more than 25 years has been working on connecting the scientific fields studying the brain with the non-academic community and the general population to understand why it is important to learn about, to know, to study, and to take care of the brain. The BAW is celebrated on the third week of March every year in more than 100 countries, involving universities, hospitals, NGOs, colleges, and private organisations.
Making brain connections
One of the things that helps make this initiative special is that it brings together staff and students from across the university. The brain is a topic studied in many different ways across our university. This means that beside staff and students from EUC, colleagues from Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences and Erasmus Medical Centre could all make contributions to the programme. This year, the input for Brain Awareness Week was not only from within our university, thanks to the involvement of Natural History Museum Rotterdam, University of Leiden and Amsterdam Medical Centre, showing the topic, our university and the city in its full diversity.
"Anderson Mora Cortes' project went the extra mile"
From the jury report:
"The jury considers that Anderson Mora Cortes' project went the extra mile in his innovation and involved several target groups in and out of the university - some very difficult to reach, like elementary school students or the elderly - making a complex subject accessible for anyone. The project has proved its potential by growing the number of attendees in every edition with a limited budget. The jury also praises his collaborative aspect with other universities and stakeholders and the alignment with the EUR's strategy in becoming a civic university."
Impact inside and outside our university
This range of experience and expertise created a rich programme with a series of events, each tailored to specific audiences. Across the week, there were activities at Sophia's Kinderziekenhuis for primary school pupils, workshops, and brain experiment showcases for secondary school children at EUC, and more general events under the theme Brain and Art: Creativity in Mind. Students could get 'hands on' and dissect animal brains, there was an evening event at the city centre full of music, stand-up comedy, poetry and storytelling from brain scientists who shared their artistic expertise and how that has influenced their brain work. Here, Beatles songs were used as examples of memory and habit formation, the challenges of AI vs human creativity were also part of the agenda.
"Brain Awareness Week demonstrates that it is possible to bridge the gap between researchers, teachers, students and the city in which they work."
EUC is very proud of Anderson's achievement:
"Brain Awareness week demonstrates that it is possible to bridge the gap between researchers, teachers, students and the city in which they work. There can be a mutually beneficial exchange of ideas and experiences. We can help engage and interest generations of people living in Rotterdam in our research and teaching activities. And explaining what we do and how we explain it. And most importantly of all, Brain Awareness Week helps make new connections within the university, across the university and other city institutions, and between the university and the public. It was for these impacts that Anderson and Brain Awareness Week was recognised and the reason we will continue this initiative and to help it to continue to grow have an even bigger impact in years to come."
Brain Awareness Week is also a collaboration partner in the NWO-funded research 'Creating Societal Awareness for Nanoscale Brain Research' led by dr. Dimphna Meijer from TU Delft. This project aims to bring neuroscience research closer to the public and involve various groups in society.
The next Brain Awareness Week will be 16 - 22 March 2026.
About the Education Prize
Every year, the Education Prize is awarded to a lecturer at Erasmus University Rotterdam who has stood out in a particular way. For example, by a passionate way of teaching or by using an innovative teaching style. The Education Prize is made possible by the Erasmus Trustfonds. Last year the prize went to Peter Marks and Pieter Tuytens, both from ESSB, for their innovations in teaching methods.
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Last year, dr. Anderson Mora Cortes was featured in the EM series of greatest lectures at EUR. You can read the article here: 'This feel like jelly.' EUC students dissect calf brains - Erasmus Magazine
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