I am an experimental psychologist, and have spent most of my career with one foot in academia (in teaching and research) and the other one out (exploring real world applications). For the past ten years I have been particularly interested in understanding the ‘brighter’ side of human nature - our desire to help others, to be creative, to feel engaged - and how we can capitalize on these tendencies to make the world a better place.My main professional objective is to increase social well-being by designing situations that bring out the best in us. I do this through two main activities: university teaching and developing a non-profit organization (www.maac-lab.com).