Foundation News

Dr. Danielle Posthuma, 2021 Mensa Foundation Prize winner, details her award-winning research into genetic correlations with intelligence.

In conjunction with the celebration of its 50th anniversary, the Mensa Foundation recently announced its 2021 research award winners. The winter issue of the Mensa Research Journal is dedicated to honoring those award winners and sharing some of the fascinating work representing their achievements.

Mensa Foundation seeks nominations for Awards for Excellence in Research, the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Copper Black Award for Creative Achievement, the International Intellectual Benefits to Society Award, the Distinguished Teacher Award, the Gifted Education Fellowship, the Dissertation Mini-Grant, and the Early Career Researcher Mini-Grant.

Join us July 5 in Sparks, Nev., for the Mensa Foundation’s 2022 Colloquium: Giftedness Across the Lifespan: A More Complete Picture, where we’ll explore the latest work on giftedness — research and ideas that will expand our understanding of intelligence, high ability, and giftedness across the entire lifespan.

The Fall Mensa Research Journal explores the four-step learning cycle theorized by Drs. Alice and David Kolb: a recursive loop of experiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting. Drawing on this concept, we investigate the theory’s application across various higher education concentrations.

We’re honored to recognize a pioneer in the field of genetics and intelligence research, educators advocating for equitable practices in gifted education, and researchers whose groundbreaking discoveries advance our understanding of intellectual giftedness.

For 50 years, the Mensa Foundation has championed research into the nature of intelligence and creativity that works toward a better understanding of the human condition. In the summer issue of the Mensa Research Journal, we check in with past award winners to explore their contemporary work and visions for the future.

The Mensa Foundation is celebrating 50 years of unleashing intelligence for the benefit of humanity. Its scholarship program has benefitted learners of all ages. Grants and awards have helped recognize and advance important research while promoting pragmatic solutions. And gifted youth benefit from special programming.

Attendees of the 2021 Mensa Foundation Colloquium: Advances in Food Science will hear the latest research into how our neural responses mediate taste. Also on the menu for the event: investigations into food safety, emerging food and agricultural technologies, maintaining stable food supplies globally, and Covid-19’s impact on food scarcity.

There are plenty of articles and a considerable body of research on the topic of memory, but what about memory’s counterpart: forgetting? In the winter issue of the Mensa Research Journal, we explore the role memories play in our emotional lives, the dance between memory and emotions, and the many perspectives on forgetting as well as the useful purposes it can serve.

The Mensa Foundation exists to provide resources and opportunities to nurture and celebrate intelligence. The two newest members of the Foundation Board of Trustees, Nguyen Pham and Michelle Rakshys, embody that commitment and passion.

In the fall Mensa Research Journal, we explore the life’s work of Dr. James Robert Flynn, Mensa Foundation International Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and a prolific researcher, charismatic professor, and thought-provoking philosopher in search of answers to the question, “What is intelligence?”

Helping college students achieve their academic and career goals is a great opportunity to give back and support the next generation of leaders. Volunteer today to help support the Mensa Foundation’s Scholarship Program.

You are driving up the number of scholarship recipients as well as their awards, helping pave smoother educational paths for students around the world. And several new scholarships and increased award amounts set students up to unleash their intelligence.

This year, we’re honored to recognize a pioneer in the field of intelligence research, innovators whose creations serve to benefit disadvantaged individuals, researchers whose groundbreaking discoveries advance our understanding of the human body and mind, and educators who seek to ensure that the identification of gifted individuals is fair, equitable, and free of bias.

How much can science tell us about the ways humans experience aesthetic expressions? Inside the summer issue of the Mensa Research Journal, we examine an innovative but controversial area of neuroscience research: neuroaesthetics, or how the arts affect our cognition, psychology, and more.

With so many families finding it necessary to transform their homes into makeshift classrooms, the Mensa Foundation is here to help. MensaforKids.com features a curated lists of free and low-cost educational resources to enrich your child’s mind and ignite their excitement about learning.

Explore the papers recognized by the 2018-19 Mensa Foundation Awards for Excellence in Research, including “Identifying Gifted Minority Students,” “Screening and Challenging Gifted Students,” “Sex Differences in Cognitive Ability,” and “Parents’ Perceptions of STEM Programs.” Plus research on handedness, language, and genetics; optimism and longevity; perceptual prediction; and a book review: In Search of Emotions.

In the latest issue of the Mensa Research Journal, we attempt to unravel the mysteries of sleep and its effect on the brain, including how sleep deprivation affects attention and cognitive control; sleep spindles and their role in memory reprocessing and consolidation; and how napping may prove beneficial to brain health, especially in older adults.

For decades, the Mensa Foundation has presented awards to individuals around the world, members of Mensa and nonmembers alike. Its latest recognition and extension of support comes in the form of Dissertation and Early Career Mini-Grants, to be awarded to doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers for research related to intelligence or gifted education.