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[This Letter Is Closed Now, Accepting No More Signatures] March 31st, 2017 To: H.E. Réka Szemerkényi, Ambassador of Hungary to the United States of America Zoltán Balog, Minister of Human Capacities, Ministry of Human Capacities, Hungary László Palkovics, Minister of State for Education, Ministry of Human Capacities, Hungary Dear Ambassador Szemerkényi, Minister Balog, and Minister Palkovics, We are writing to express our dismay about the proposed legislation that would effectively end a 25-year history of scientific excellence in Budapest. As an international body of psychologists, neuroscientists, and cognitive scientists, we can tell you that our colleagues at Central European University are among the most respected in the world. Their intellectual legacy has had a global impact. We believe any city should count itself fortunate to have such a renowned center of academic excellence in its midst. The proposed legislation will make it effectively impossible for CEU to continue to occupy its current position as one of the foremost scientific institutions internationally. We respectfully ask that you preserve CEU’s ability to act as a center of leadership and innovation in Hungary and the world by withdrawing this legislation. [This letter is closed now, accepting no more signatures] Sincerely, 1. Laura Schulz, Professor of Cognitive Science, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT 2. Rebecca Saxe, Professor of Cognitive Science, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT 3. John E. Richards, Carolina Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina. 4. Michael Tomasello, Duke University, Durham, NC, and Max Planck for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. 5. Philippe G. Schyns, Professor of Visual Cognition, Director of the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, university of Glasgow, UK 6. Janet F. Werker, Professor, Canada Research Chair, and University Killam Professor, The University of British Columbia, CANADA 7. Charles A. Nelson, Professor of Pediatrics,Neuroscience and Education, Harvard University 8. Joshua B. Tenenbaum, Professor of Computational Cognitive Science, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT 9. Andrew N. Meltzoff, Professor of Psychology, Co-Director of the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA 10. Tania Singer, Director of the Department for Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institut for Human Cognitive and Brain Science, Leipzig, Germany. 11. Mary C. Potter, Professor of Psychology Emerita. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT. 12. Tamsin C. German, Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara. 13. Alison Gopnik, Professor of Psychology, Dept. of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley 14. Vittorio Gallese, Professor of Physiology, Dept. of Medicine & Surgery - Unit of Neuroscience, University of Parma, Italy; Professor in Experimental Aesthetics, Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK. 15. Paul Bloom, Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology, Yale University 16. Nancy Kanwisher, Walter A. Rosenblith Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, MIT; Member, National Academy of Sciences, USA 17. Miguel P. Eckstein, Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara. 18. Masaki Tomonaga, Professor, PhD, Language and Intelligence Section, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, JAPAN 19. Susan Gelman, Heinz Werner Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and Linguistics, University of Michigan; Member, National Academy of Sciences, USA 20. Michael I. Jordan, Distinguished Professor of Statistics and Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, Member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, Member of the National Academy of Engineering, USA 21. Marjorie Rhodes, Associate Professor of Psychology, New York University 22. Athena Vouloumanos, Associate Professor of Psychology, New York University. 23. Catherine Hartley, Assistant Professor of Psychology, New York University. 24. Patrick Shafto, Henry Rutgers Term Chair in Data Science and Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Rutgers University--Newark 25. Elizabeth Bonawitz, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University--Newark 26. Koleen McCrink, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Barnard College- Columbia University 27. Lisa Feigenson, Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University 28. Justin Halberda, Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University 29. Edward Gibson, Professor of Cognitive Science, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 30. William Graves, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University -- Newark 31. David Sobel, Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University 32. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Lefkowitz Faculty Fellow and Professor of Psychology, Temple University 33. Jesse Snedeker, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University 34. Hyowon Gweon, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Stanford University 35. Cristine Legare, Associate Professor of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin 36. Renée Baillargeon, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois 37. Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and Member, National Academy of Sciences, USA 38. Yusuke Moriguchi, Associate Professor, Department of Education, Kyoto University 39. Bernhard Hommel, Professor of General Psychology, Leiden University 40. Victoria Southgate, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen 41. Leda Cosmides, Distinguished Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara 42. Raffaella I. Rumiati, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, SISSA, Trieste Italy 43. Kazuhide Hashiya, PhD. Associate Professor, Faculty of Human Environment Studies, Kyushu University, Japan 44. Hiromi Kobayashi, PhD. Research Fellow, Faculty of Human Environment Studies, Kyushu University, Japan 45. Emmanuel Dupoux, Professor of Cognitive Science, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Ecole Normale Supérieure, CNRS, Paris. 46. Daniel Wolpert FRS FMedSci, Royal Society Noreen Murray Professor in Neurobiology and Professor of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK 47. Albert Costa. ICREA Research Professor. University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. 48. Anne Christophe, CNRS Research Director, Ecole normale supérieure, Paris. 49. Christian Lorenzi, Professor of Experimental Psychology, Ecole normale supérieure, Paris. 50. Deborah Kelemen, Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, USA 51. John Tooby, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology & Psychological & Brain Sciences, Co-Director, Center for Evolutionary Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA 52. Jean-Rémy Hochmann, CNRS Researcher, Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, Lyon, France 53. Corrado Sinigaglia, Professor of Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy, University of Milan, Italy 54. Kazuo Hiraki, Professor, Department of General Systems Studies, University of Tokyo, Japan 55. Luca L. Bonatti, ICREA Professor, Center for Brain and Cognition, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain 56. Judit Gervain, CNRS Researcher, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, Paris, France 57. Stefano Palminteri, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France 58. Ian Apperly, Professor of Cognition and Development, University of Birmingham, UK. 59. Giorgio Vallortigara, Professor of Neuroscience, University of Trento, Italy 60. Masako Myowa-Yamakoshi, Professor, Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University, Japan. 61. Bruce Hood, Professor of Developmental Psychology in Society, University of Bristol, UK. 62. Rita Astuti, Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics, UK 63. Rachael Jack, Lecturer in Psychology, Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, UK 64. Atsushi Senju, Reader in Social Neuroscience, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, UK 65. Giacomo Rizzolatti, Prof.Human Physiology, University of Parma, Parma Italy 66. Daniel C. Richardson, Reader, Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, UK. 67. Tony Charman, Chair in Clinical Child Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK 68. Olivier Mascaro, CNRS Researcher, Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, Lyon, France 69. Pierre Jacob, Senior Researcher, CNRS, Institut Jean Nicod, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France. 70. Olivier Morin, research group leader, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany. 71. Willem Frankenhuis, Assistant Professor of Developmental Psychology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands 72. Gustaf Gredebäck, Professor of Developmental Psychology, Uppsala University, Sweden 73. Tim Shallice FRS, Emeritus Professor, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK 74. Laura Visu-Petra, Associate Professor, Developmental Psychology Lab, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania 75. Véronique Izard, CNRS Researcher, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France. 76. Iroise Dumontheil, Reader in Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck,
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