Anja, on her first day in LA, 2015
On a field trip to a Dodger's game with SMC's International Education Center, 2017
On a visit to Joshua Tree in 2017
Featured on Sweden's largest TV network, which showcased research Anja's team was doing, 2022
Presenting her research at the AChemS 2025 conference in Florida
Anja at the ECRO 2026 conference in Paris, 2026
More than a decade ago, Anja Winter journeyed from Sweden to Santa Monica College, unsure about even completing a degree. She was just looking for a different experience.
“A friend at the time and I decided to take a leap of faith and apply to SMC,” Anja recalls. But what began as a chance to explore her interests while taking in California’s culture would soon reshape how she saw her future.
Today, Anja is a PhD candidate in medical science at Karolinska Institutet in her hometown of Stockholm. There she studies perception and the brain with a focus on the sense of smell. More than that, Anja is a psychology instructor, published researcher, science communicator, and co-author of a new book examining the future of psychedelic science.
The path to all of it, she says, began at SMC.
Exploring Possibilities
While Anja had enjoyed psychology classes in high school, she assumed that studying the field meant becoming a clinical psychologist. “I just didn’t think becoming a clinician was for me,” she says.
So Anja wanted to keep her options open at SMC. She had been drawn to the college partly by its large international student population and reputation for supporting students from abroad. Plus, her sister, an actress, was already living in Los Angeles, making a move halfway around the world less daunting.
At SMC, Anja studied art and journalism as well as psychology and communication. Ultimately, though, she stuck close to psychology, earning an associate degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences.
“I was able to explore my interests in a way that helped me realize how fascinated I really was with psychology,” she says.
Meanwhile, the college’s intimate classes enabled her to build connections to faculty as well as fellow students. In Sweden, she explains, university courses can include hundreds of students, leaving little opportunity for the kind of interaction she experienced at SMC.
Watching her professors teach and learning more about their work made her realize she could build a career in psychological research, adding to the knowledge of clinical practitioners instead of working as one.
“I realized that you can actually have an academic career in the field,” she says.
A Spark Ignited
At SMC, faculty helped Anja begin to see possibilities in herself that she hadn’t previously imagined. Communication Studies instructorProfessor Fariba Sadeghi-Tabrizi challenged her and made her feel that she belonged.
“I think she saw something in me and expected certain things,” Anja says. “That kind of triggered a spark to continue studying.”
SMC Professor of Psychology Dorothy Chin further stoked her growing interest in the field. Dorothy’s “warmth, the thoughtful feedback she gave me on my assignments, and her depth of knowledge and teaching skills were incredibly impressive and inspiring,” Anja says. “I could tell how genuinely passionate she was about the subject, and that really stayed with me.”
The two even stayed in touch after Anja left SMC. “It seemed that Dr. Chin saw something in me as well,” Anja says, “which really helped me believe more in my own abilities and in my future path.”
Other courses pushed Anja to develop skills beyond her comfort zone. Public speaking, argumentation and debate were unfamiliar territory. “In Sweden, we don’t really practice debating in front of a crowd,” she says. “So that was very challenging—but also very rewarding.”
Such lessons quickly came in handy. Needing to support herself, Anja found a campus job in SMC’s International Education Center. The student who struggled with stage fright soon found herself giving campus tours and helping newly arrived international students navigate the same transition she had recently made herself.
Transferring Forward
After earning her SMC degree summa cum laude in 2017, Anja spent a year working as a legal assistant through Optional Practical Training before transferring to California Lutheran University.
“I definitely felt prepared,” she says. “I think I got a lot of help in the transfer process from SMC.”
At Cal Lutheran, Anja earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology magna cum laude. After another year of Optional Practical Training, this time working with a Los Angeles organization serving probation youth, she returned to Sweden and earned a master’s degree in psychology from Stockholm University.
Anja’s route into neuroscience began almost by chance. While pursuing her master’s, she took a job operating an MRI scanner at the university’s brain imaging center. The work fascinated her, and the center’s director recruited her to his research group.
Today, midway through her PhD, Anja studies how the brain interprets sensory information. Much of her research centers on olfaction—a sense she notes is often overlooked despite the profound effect losing it can have on everyday life.
Among her projects has been the development and evaluation of a smell-training kit designed to make rehabilitation easier for people who lost their sense of smell following COVID-19. Her research has also explored how long-term olfactory dysfunction affects quality of life.
“I’m moving my PhD more and more toward the clinical application of it,” she says. “I like to see effects of my research and help people.”
Full Circle
Anja’s curiosity continues to range well beyond a single research area. She serves on the board of the Swedish Network for Psychedelic Science, a nonprofit devoted to evidence-based research and education. She produces the organization’s podcast and has helped organize scientific programming.
Anja has also co-authored a book whose title roughly translates to The Third Way: A Vision for the Psychedelic Renaissance. Originally published in Sweden, with an English version underway, the volume examines how society might approach psychedelic experiences in a responsible, research-informed way.
Alongside her research, Anja now teaches psychology herself—including courses in perception and introductory psychology, helping others build their futures just as SMC did for her.
Anja doesn’t yet know exactly where her research will take her after her PhD. She hopes to remain in science and academia, perhaps eventually leading a research team of her own.
“I want to stay in science and in academia,” Anja says. “It’s so cool being a part of finding or discovering new knowledge.”
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SMC in Focus Volume XII, Issue 5
Teaching from the Cloud
Koda Kol’s life journey from a Cambodian jungle to teaching cloud computing at SMC is a story of grit, reinvention and paying it forward. Read Article
English at Work
A free SMC noncredit ESL course helps adult learners build workplace communication skills while opening doors to education and new career possibilities. Read Article
Opening Minds
Stockholm native Anja Winter developed her passion for psychology at SMC, leading her to pursue a PhD and co-author a book on psychedelic science. Read Article
Listening, Discovering, Reimagining
Director of Library & Information Services Walter Butler did not have a ‘straight path’ into this career, but he’s found his niche, helping students succeed. Read Article
Bragging Rights
A Life Sciences prof. named elective member of the American Ornithological Society. A trustee publishes a novel. SMC Malibu flourishes. Read Article
On the Horizon: Cloud Computing
CSIS Dept. Chair Howard Stahl on the new baccalaureate degree in Cloud Computing, why it’s so relevant & what opportunities await students. Read Article