As Nature Neuroscience celebrates its 25th anniversary, we are having conversations with both established leaders in the field and those earlier in their careers to discuss how the field has evolved, and where it is heading. This month, we are talking to Igor Adameyko (Department Chair at the Center for Brain Research of the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, and a group leader at the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden), a developmental biologist by training with research interests ranging from neural crest cell fate to aquatic life and a champion of a positive research culture.