Prof. Dr Andrea Samson

Andrea Samson is an associate professor of psychology at UniDistance Switzerland and has a professorship funded by the Swiss National Research Foundation (SNSF) at the Institute of Special Education, University of Fribourg. 

Andrea Samson has studied and conducted research at various universities in Switzerland and abroad. She did her PhD in Psychology at the University of Fribourg and her post-doctorate at Stanford University (2010-2015). Between 2015-2018, she was awarded the Ambizione fellowship by the SNSF to conduct her research at the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences (CISA) at the University of Geneva. Today, she is a professor at UniDistance Switzerland and the University of Fribourg. 

She is the director of the chEERS Lab - a team of researchers interested in the study of socio-emotional processes in people with neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. autism) and intellectual disabilities (e.g. Williams syndrome). Positive emotions, also in relation to humor, and the regulation of emotions related to mental health play an important role in several research projects. The team is also interested in using board games as well as new technologies such as virtual reality for the assessment of emotional skills and for the development of remediation programs.