Associate Professor van der Zwan will talk about non-verbal communication with an emphasis on the evolutionary perspective.

Associate Professor Rick van der Zwan is a behavioural scientist working to understand the neural mechanisms mediating our perceptions of others and of ourselves.

Rick leads research projects in behavioural neuroscience, in applied brain sciences, and in healthy aging. He has an international reputation as a behavioural researcher having authored more than 60 scholarly articles and numerous other reports and consultancies. He works also as Director of Research in Coffs Harbour at Southern Cross University and as Director of Cognitive Neuroscience. He speaks every week with regional ABC radio to make contemporary research and mental health issues accessible to the general public and to help to popularise and demystify the neurosciences and the brain.

Rick obtained a BSc from the University of Sydney. Majoring in Psychology and Anatomy, he went on to achieve First Class Honours in Psychology. Rick then completed his PhD, also at the University of Sydney. His doctoral research led to his winning a postdoctoral appointment in the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital in Zurich. In 1995 Rick was invited to apply for appointment to the Department of Psychology at the University of Sydney. In 2001 he moved to James Cook University. Rick joined Southern Cross University in 2003 to lead the development of the research programme and set up the University's first research labs in Coffs Harbour. In 2008 he was appointed to the Rural Clinical School of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of NSW as a Conjoint Associate Professor.

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