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We are pleased to announce that Lucia Regolin, Professor in the Department of General Psychology at the University of Padua and head of the Comparative Cognition Lab, has been elected as an Academician of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (WAAC) in recognition of her systematic contributions to animal consciousness and innate representations—particularly the number–space mapping and social/perceptual mechanisms elucidated using domestic chick models.
Professor Regolin is a tenured professor in the Department of General Psychology at the University of Padua, whose research has long focused on the origins of mind and comparative cognition. Regolin’s team and collaborators were the first to demonstrate in newly hatched chicks a human-like “mental number line”—with smaller numbers mapped to the left and larger numbers to the right—providing key evidence for an innate component of the number–space association (Science, 2015). Subsequent work further showed that this linkage is explained primarily by numerical magnitude rather than by individual spatial biases. These findings offer reproducible experimental paradigms for understanding nonverbal quantity representation and “consciousness-like” information selection.
- Global Collaboration and Academic Ecosystem
The Academicians of WAAC come from universities and research institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, the French Academy of Sciences, the University of Padua, the University of Queensland, Columbia University, and the University of Exeter, among others. Honorary Academicians represent multiple countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Spain, and China. Additionally, leading scientists from renowned research institutions and technology companies—such as Google, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and Zeekr—are also involved.
- About WAAC
The World Academy for Artificial Consciousness (https://www.waac.ac/) is a global academic institution established in Paris in 2025. Its mission is to advance frontier research and international collaboration in artificial consciousness through the integration of science, technology, and philosophy. The Academy publishes open research, policy recommendations, evaluation standards, and more. The current President is Academician Yucong Duan, and the Secretary-General is Dr. Yingbo Li. The Honorary Academician List: On May 3, 2025, WAAC released its first batch of Top 100 Honorary Academicians, recognizing scholars who have made foundational or leading contributions to the theory of artificial consciousness.