Page-Barbour Lectures

2026 PAGE-BARBOUR LECTURES — Dr. Brian Nosek

What does it mean to investigate human nature? 

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We share an innate desire to understand ourselves – our lives, our thoughts, our feelings. In an effort to professionalize our investigations, fields such as psychology employ a scientific approach meant to deliver accurate results.

A scientifically sound experiment produces results that are valid, reliable, and replicable.

What if all of our research is wrong?

Recent attempts to verify findings in psychology only achieved successful replications about half the time. This “replication crisis” has implications not just for the humanities and social sciences, but for fields like education and mental healthcare as well.

 How can we move forward?

UVA’s own Brian Nosek is at the forefront of the push to find a better way. Dr. Nosek, a professor of psychology, co-founded the Center for Open Science, which aims to improve rigor, transparency, integrity, and reproducibility across research disciplines.

Over the course of three lectures, Dr. Nosek will assess how we got here, reflect on lessons learned, and share his vision for the future.

Tuesday, February 24

(6 pm in Nau 101)

Repeatability: Redoing research for reproducibility, robustness, and replicability reveals reliability and rigor risks

Wednesday, February 25

(5 pm in Nau 101)

Living one’s values in a research culture that does not necessarily share them

Thursday, February 26

(5 pm in Nau 101)

Start, scaling, and sustaining a continuously improving research culture