Elizabeth Ricker

MIT & Harvard trained brain researcher and Silicon Valley technologist

• Award-winning author of 'Smarter Tomorrow: How 15 Minutes of Neurohacking a Day Can Help You Work Better, Think Faster, and Get More Done'

Elizabeth Ricker

Elizabeth R. Ricker is the award-winning author of “Smarter Tomorrow: How 15 Minutes of Neurohacking A Day Can Help You Work Better, Think Faster, and Get More Done” (Little, Brown Spark/Hachette). Her background is in neuroscience and technology, with degrees from MIT and Harvard. She has lectured across the world and consults with Silicon Valley venture capital firms, startups, schools, and the Fortune 500.


Ricker’s book, Smarter Tomorrow, is a 2022 international Nautilus Book Award winner. It was chosen by The Wall Street Journal as one of "12 Books to Start a Smart New Year" and as one of the “Top Book Bites of 2021” by New York Times bestselling authors Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Dan Pink’s Next Big Idea Club. Smarter Tomorrow was a #1 Amazon bestseller in multiple categories, and translations into Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Romanian, and Russian are scheduled for release.


Ricker runs the citizen neuroscience, DIY, and neurohacking organization, NeuroEducate, and the consultancy, Ricker Labs. Her work has been featured worldwide, including in Fast Company, Psychology Today, The Hindu (India), the book "Science Not Silence" (MIT Press), and public broadcast TV in Europe.


For free neurohacking tools and resources, visit ericker.com. Ricker can be found as “eliricker” on Medium, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. For informal “virtual coffee chats”, mini-neurohacking sessions, and other events, check for upcoming events at Luminary Cafe.

Speech topics

Smarter Tomorrow: A Better Brain in 15 Minutes a Day

What if you could upgrade your brain in just 15 minutes a day? That’s the question that led MIT and Harvard trained researcher Elizabeth Ricker on a 10+ year quest through neuroscience labs and tech startups around the world. After poring through hundreds of research papers, conducting dozens of interviews, and testing countless tools on herself, Ricker uncovered something surprising: rather than finding few, she found many research-backed tools with the ability to upgrade mental performance. There was a problem, though. Certain tools worked well on some people but not on others – and it was hard to predict which tool would work best on whom. As she dug further, Ricker discovered something even more surprising: a little known methodology used by Nobel Prize-winning scientists. This highly personalizable framework can be used to unlock our best performances at work, in relationships, or in life. Learn more in Ricker’s talk.

5 Research-Backed Brain Upgrades: At Home or In the Office

What are five little known – but powerful – ways to improve mental performance? In this talk, Ricker introduces research-backed tools that can be used at home or in the office. They range from easy to complex and from free to a few hundred dollars. She will discuss the surprising power of an often maligned type of human bias, research showing that one of the simplest brain upgrades that humans have been using for a millennia actually works, that the blue light from your phone is not necessarily as bad as we think, that some video games may be good for us, and that a certain type of brain imaging device can be used to meditate more effectively. For every tool, Ricker explains the research behind it and exactly how you can start using it in just fifteen minutes a day.

4 Mental Superpowers for 21st Century Success

Beginning in the early 1900s, the concept of intelligence - as measured by IQ tests - became a popular explanation for success. Starting in the 1990s, emotional intelligence (EQ) began to take hold of the public’s imagination. As the 21st century unfolds, what mental abilities will we value most? In this timely talk, Ricker introduces data from large, longitudinal scholarly studies about the traits that underlie everyday success in today’s world. The mental abilities she pulls out – including ones she calls the New IQ and the New EQ – turn out to be predictive of success in work, school, and relationships. Best of all? These abilities turn out to be wonderfully trainable: you don’t have to be born with them. Ricker will also share research-backed ways each of us can improve in these mental abilities – even if we are not quite at superpower levels yet – in just fifteen minutes a day.

Books

Smarter Tomorrow: How 15 Minutes of Neurohacking a Day Can Help You Work Better, Think Faster, and Get More Done

What if you could upgrade your brain in 15 minutes a day? Let Elizabeth Ricker, an MIT and Harvard-trained brain researcher turned Silicon Valley technologist, show you how.

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