Alessandra Bertoldo

Alessandra Bertoldo is Full Professor of Bioengineering at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Padova.

Her research interests are mainly related to the development of mathematical models for analysis and control of biological systems and to the quantification of functional positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance images. Current personal and collaborative research activities include: Mathematical models for quantitative PET studies, Methods for magnetic resonance functional imaging, Imaging genetics, Non-linear mixed effects modeling, Quantitative multimodal imaging.

During her career, she has contributed to several national as well as international research projects. She teaches Imaging for Neuroscience for the Bioengineering Master’s Degree Program at the University of Padova.

Alessandra Del Felice

Alessandra Del Felice is an academic clinician in the area of Neurorehabilitation. Her basic training has been as a neurologist, with a special interest in neurophysiology and neurorehabilitation, and holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience.

Her current research area allows her to draw on her experience and skills in neurophysiology to improve methodology and outcome measures in this important area of rehabilitation, stressing the interdisciplinary nature of this research. Techniques that she masters include gait analysis, electromyography (EMG), electroencephalography (EEG), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), EEG-TMS co-registrations, and EEG signal analysis.

Her current research portfolio includes EEG-EMG co-registration during overground gait in healthy subjects and during exsoskleteon gait in post-stroke subjects during gait; development of rehabilitative protocols and wearable devices to reduce loss of balance in the elderly; validation of inertial sensors for gait in clinical practice; early biomarkers of recovery after stroke; recovery and long term prognostic markers after coma.

Alessandro Angrilli

Master degree in Biology. PhD in Experimental Psychology with a thesis entitled “Psychophysiology of emotions”. In 1995 spent one year in the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology of Tübingen directed by Prof. Niels Birbaumer. In 1997-1998, Marie-Curie post-doc grant at the University of Konstanz, laboratories of Prof. Thomas Elbert and Brigitte Rockstroh with a project on cortical plasticity of language in aphasic patients after recovery. In 1998, Assistant Professor of Psychobiology at the Department of General Psychology, University of Padova. In 2001, Associate professor and in 2015, Full professor of Psychobiology. He has been supervisor and tutor of several PhD students, for three of whom he was co-tutor with German Universities (Konstanz and Wuerzburg).

Alessandro Bertoli

EDUCATION & RESEARCH ACTIVITY

Dr. Alessandro Bertoli got a degree in Physics at the University of Genova (Italy) in 1994 and a PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Padova (Italy) in 2000. At the beginning, his scientific activity, was addressed to the electrophysiological characterization of mammalian CNS and mitochondrial ion channels ion channels. From 2000 to 2002 Dr. Bertoli had a post-doctoral at the Pharmacological Research Institute “Mario Negri” (Milano, Italy). During this period, he had the possibility to lead a research unit involved in the study of the molecular mechanisms of Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.

Alessandro Martini

Present position

Full professor Med 31 (Otorhinolaryngology), Padova University School of Medicine; Chief of Airway Endoscopic Surgery Department and ENT – Otosurgery Department, Hospital of Padova; Director Padova Hospital Neurosciences and Sense Organs Department; Director Otorhinolaryngology Residency Program, University of Padova; Director Bioacustic Laboratory, University of Padova

Major Research Interests

Genetic causes of deafness and on malformation pathology of ear, cochlear implants and implantable prothesis. Principal Investigator in many Italian and European research projects (HEAR, GenDeaf, RegenEar).
In the Laboratory of Bioacoustics is carried out a research on molecular and in vitro cellular on neuronaland resulting organ of Corti cell lines, in order to analyze the causes of hearing disorders and correlated therapies.

Alexandra Wennberg

Dr. Alexandra Wennberg is focused on research in neurodegenerative diseases, with a particular interest in Alzheimer’s disease. She received a PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2015) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Mayo Clinic (2015-2018).

Her past work has focused on the associations between type II diabetes and dementia, blood based markers for dementia, and functional aspects of dementia. Her current focus pertains to the role of sleep in dementia. Evidence suggests that sleep has a bidirectional relationship with dementia, that is, it is both a risk factor for development of dementia and is often disrupted in dementia patients, leading to poorer prognosis.

Andrea Landi

Andrea Landi is Associated Professor in Neurosurgery at the University of Padua since march 2018. He graduated in Medicine at the University of Milan in 1983 and obtained post-degrees in Neurosurgery (University of Milan – 1988) and Neurology (University of Verona – 1993). He spent his fellowships at the INSERM CHRU de Grenoble (F) in 1990-91 and at the Montreal Neurological Institute (Montreal CND -1991) following a comprehensive program in functional neurosurgery, neuromodulation and epilepsy surgery.

Since 1988 he attended to stereotactic neurosurgery and radiosurgery with LINAC. As far as 1994 he worked at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Neurosurgical Department, developing a program in functional neurosurgery, with detailed focus on Deep brain Stimulation (DBS) for movement disorders; he cooperated with the Parkinson’s Institute of Milan implementing clinical trials on DBS for PD and dystonia.

Angela Favaro

Present position

Full professor MED/25 (Psychiatry), Padova University School of Medicine; Chief of Psychiatric Clinic at the Hospital of Padova; Chief of the Eating Disorders Unit at the Hospital of Padova; Director of Psychiatry Residency Program.

Major Research Interests

– Psychopathology, epidemiology and therapy of eating disorders

– Genetic and neurodevelopmental risk factors for the development of eating disorders. The Eating Disorders Padova Research Group in collaboration with Professor Maurizio Clementi (Clinical Genetics Unit) host a DNA biobank (BIOVEDA)

– Neurocognition in eating disorders and in other types of psychiatric disorders. Functional connectivity correlates of executive functioning in psychiatric disorders.

– Structural and functional neuroimaging in eating disorders, psychiatric disorders, and rare genetic diseases

– Neuroconnectomics of psychiatric disorders.

Angelo Antonini

Angelo Antonini graduated in Medicine in 1986 and completed Neurology training in 1990 at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in Rome where he developed skills in neuropharmacology and movement disorders. After obtaining a scholarship in 1990, in 1991 he started a PhD in Neuroradiology with PET and MRI at the University of Zurich and the Institute of Physics Paul Scherrer in Villigen, Switzerland, which he completed in 1994. PET studies focused on the dopaminergic system, metabolic disorders and cerebral blood flow in healthy subjects, in Parkinson patients and with other movement disorders as well as psychiatric disorders.

MRI studies focused on the study of signal T2 and its relationship with free iron as degeneration biomarkers.

Angelo Bisazza

Angelo Bisazza is Professor of Psychobiology at the University of Padova and member of the Accademia Galileiana.

His early research focused on inter- and intra-specific diversity in reproductive strategies in teleost fishes with emphasis on evolution of male ornaments through female mate choice. In early nineties, he described the presence of functional brain asymmetries in fish and amphibians and later he investigated the genetic and environmental factors influencing the direction and strength of brain asymmetries in fish as well as the selective advantages and the disadvantages of cerebral lateralisation.

In recent years his research addressed the evolution of cognitive abilities in vertebrates, investigating in particular the mechanisms underlying numerical abilities in teleost fishes.

Antonino Vallesi

Antonino Vallesi is an Associate Professor in Psychobiology & Physiological Psychology at the University of Padua since 2014.

He pursued his master degree in Psychology (cum laude) from University of Padua in 2003 and his PhD in Neuroscience (cum laude) at SISSA, Trieste in 2007. During his PhD, he visited the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, London (2005). He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, Toronto (2007-2009) and an Assistant Professor at SISSA (2009-2012) and then at University of Padua (2012-2014).

In 2011 he received the Bertelson Award from the European Society of Cognitive Psychology, and the “Outstanding Young Person” national award for his research activity from Junior Chamber International.

Aram Megighian

1988 MD degree (University of Padua)
1992 Residency in Neurology (University of Padua)
1996-1997 Research Scientist Dep of Biology (San Diego State University, USA)
1992-2010 Assistant Professor in Physiology
1997- Adjunct Professor Dep of Biology (San Diego State University, USA)
2010- Associate Professor in Physiology (DBS, University of Padua)

Research interest

Nervous system function is dedicated to translate, generate and process informations in a binary code based on neuronal electrical response: action potential.
These binary coded informations are exchanged from one neuron to the other connected by synapses in both simple and complex circuits. Eventually these informations are processed generating behavior, i.e.

Carlo Semenza

Graduated in Medicine, 17-7-1974, Diploma in Psychiatry, 26-7-1978 , University of Padova.

Present Position: Full Professor, University of Padova (2008-).

Full Professor of Neuropsychology University of Trieste, Italy (1995-2008).
Head of the Dept. of Psychology University of Trieste (1997-2000);
Head of Clinical Psychology School Trieste (1997-2000-2002);
Associate Professor University of Padova (1980-1995).

Research Fellow, Boston VA Hospital, 1977-1978, 1981, 1983;

Visiting Professor/Teaching: University of Melbourne (1988), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1991), Boston University, (1991), Victoria University (1997), University of Athens, 2010, 2012, 2013, Basque Center for Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian (2013).

Founder-organiser European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Bressanone, Italy, 1983-present.

Chiara Begliomini

Chiara Begliomini graduated in Psychology at the University of Padova in 2000, studying the effects of traumatic brain injury on inhibition and control processes. She then moved to the study of motor control with neuroimaging techniques: she spent several months at the Neuroimaging Laboratory at the Royal Holloway University of London (UK), and from 2005 to 2006 she was visiting fellow at the Section of Experimental Neuroradiology of Tuebingen University Hospital (Germany).

In 2006 she received her PhD from the University of Trento, with a thesis investigating neural correlates of grasping movements with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and from the end of 2007 to the beginning of 2010 she joined the University of Ferrara to investigate the effects of action observation on motor recovery in stroke patients.

Chiara Spironelli

She receives her first-class degree at the University of Padova in 2003 (Summa cum laude), her qualification as State Registered Psychologist in 2005, and her PhD in 2007. From 2007 to 2011, she achieves three Research Grants, and from May 2012 she is Assistant Professor (M-PSI/02) at the Department of General Psychology of University of Padova. In addition to the main techniques for the psychophysiological research, she is skilled in administration and evaluation of a large number of batteries to assess the cognitive functioning, for the neuropsychological assessment and the evaluation of the main psychiatric syndromes. Within the international framework, she collaborates with the Reichenau Psychiatry Center, (Prof.

Christian Agrillo

Christian Agrillo is Assistant Professor at the Department of General Psychology of the University of Padova. He received from M.I.U.R (Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research) the National Scientific Habilitation as Full Professor in ‘General Psychology, Psychobiology and Psychometrics’ (11/E1).
He published more than 70 papers in international journals on human and non-human cognition. In particular, he is interested in the study of numerical abilities of animals. Most of these studies has been covered by important media, such as National Geographic, BBC, CNN and RAI. Recently, he started to use visual illusions as a tool to compare visual perception of vertebrates (e.g.,

Claudia Lodovichi

Claudia Lodovichi graduated in Medicine (1995) at the University of Pisa Medical School and Sant’ Anna School of Advanced Studies Pisa, Italy, with honors. She then obtained a PhD in Neurobiology (1999) at Sant’ Anna School of Advanced Studies Pisa, Italy, with honors, working on the interplay between neurotrophins and neuronal activity on cortical visual plasticity . She then moved to the USA where she worked as post doc, in LC Katz’s laboratory, HHMI, Duke Neurobiology Durham NC (1999- 2003) and then in JA Gogos’ laboratory, Columbia University NY, NY (2003 – 2005), where she continued to study circuit formation, function and plasticity, mostly in the olfactory system.

Claudio Gentili

Current position

Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Department of General Psychology, University of Padova.

2002 – Medical Doctor – University of Pisa

2007 . Ph.D. Molecular, Metabolic, Functional exploration of Nervouse System and Sensorial Organs (University of Pisa)

2009 Master Degree in Psychology (University of Pavia)

2010 Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology (University of Pisa)

2012 Boarded Psychotherapist

Main research interests:

Neurobiology of mental disorders: a particular interest has been devoted to resting state correlates of psychological traits related to psychopathology such as impulsivity and neuroticism and to phobic conditions such as social anxiety disorder.
Electrophysiological correlates of mood and anxiety: in this framework ECG recording acquired both through traditional equipment and through wearable device were used to evaluate and predict mood and mood changes in patients with affective disorders.

Cristina Scarpazza

Cristina Scarpazza is Assistant Professor at the Department of General Psychology of the University of Padova. She received from M.I.U.R (Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research) the National Scientific Habilitation as Associate Professor in ‘General Psychology, Psychobiology and Psychometrics’ (11/E1).

She published more than 70 papers in international journals on translational psychology and neuroscience, with particular emphasis of early diagnosis of psychiatric disorders, identification of neuroanatomical signature of psychiatric illness, group to individual inferences, forensic psychiatry (with particular focus on insanity evaluation). Cristina is particularly interested in cognitive biases and their impact in the interpretation of scientific findings. Through her long standing collaboration with the King’s College London, she was actively involved in a EU-founded multicentric study (PSYSCAN) aiming to improve the translational impact of neuroimaging findings from research to clinical practice.

Daniela Pietrobon

Education and training

1979, University of Padova, Laurea in Chemistry, Magna cum Laude.
1979-1982, Research Fellow, Institute of General Pathology, University of Padova: Energy transduction in mitochondria.
1984-1985, Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept of Membrane Research, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel: Non-equilibrium thermodynamics of oxidative phosphorylation and kinetic modelling of mitochondrial H+ pumps.
1987-1990, Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Harvard Medical School, U.S.A.: Biophysics of voltage-gated Ca²⁺ channels.

Employment and Research experience

1983-1991, CNR Researcher, Institute of General Pathology, University of Padova: Energy transduction in mitochondria.
1991-1993, CNR Director of Research, Dept. of Biomedical Sciences, Univ. of Padova: Biophysics and physiology of neuronal Ca²⁺ channels.

Diego Cecchin

Present position:

Associate Professor of Nuclear Medicine (MED/36), University-Hospital of Padova, School of Medicine.
Chief of the postgraduate School of nuclear medicine, University of Padova.

Major Research interests:

PET/MR applications in amyloid semi-quantification and quantification
PET/MR applications in brain tumors
PET/MR applications in multiple sclerosis
PET/MR applications in neurodegenerative diseases
PET/MR applications in movement disorders
PET/MR applications in sarcoma of the adult (body)

Edoardo Midena

Professor Edoardo Midena is Board Certified in Ophthalmology, full Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Padova, School of Medicine, and Chairman of Ophthalmology at Padova University Hospital.

He is member of the scientific board of the G.B. Bietti Foundation for study and research in ophthalmology (Rome, Italy), he is elected member of the Club Jules Gonin, the Retina Society, the Macula Society, and the European Academy of Ophthalmology, EURETINA (also Board Member), General Secretary of the Italian Retina Society.

Professor Midena’s major scientific interests are chorioretinal diseases, ocular oncology, and diagnostic techniques in ophthalmology. The interest in retinal diseases has been devoted to chronic acquired diseases, investigated from bench to bedside.

Elena Salillas

Dr. Elena Salillas has developed diverse research lines along her career. They include research on language processing, math cognition, developmental disorders (Dyscalculia) or bilingual math. For that, she has updated her methodological knowledge when the research questions required new techniques. Thus, she has applied Behavioral, Electrophysiology, Experimental Neuropsychology, lesion analyses, TMS, MEG techniques to test her hypotheses. Perhaps her most sustained research has dealt with the study of spatio-numerical representation from 2004 and Bilingual Math from 2008. From 2010 she developed a consistent line of research describing the specifics of Bilingual math functioning. Addressing questions that have important implications for developmental disorders and math training in bilinguals, laying within important debates in math cognition.

Eloisa Valenza

Present position

Full professor in Developmental Cognitive Psychology (M-PSI/04), Padova University School of Psychology

She is author of 67 scientific contributions among articles published on peer-reviewed international (30) and national (21), academic book chapters (14) and monographs (2). Scopus citation: 996, Scopus h-index: 14.

Major research interest

Her research interests focus on cognitive development in infancy, with specific reference to the early effect of attentional, perceptual and postural abilities on high level cognition (e.g., language acquisition). A clear understanding of early cognitive abilities and motor functioning is critical for identifying precocious predictors of atypical development that originate in infancy but continue throughout childhood.

Emanuele Menegatti

Emanuele Menegatti is Full Professor of the School of Engineering at Dept. of Information Engineering of University of Padova since 2017.

After his graduation in Physics in 1998, he received his MsC in AI & Robotics from the University of Edinburgh (UK) in 2000. Menegatti received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2003 from Univ. of Padua. In 2005 he became Assistant Professor and Associate Professor in 2010.

Menegatti’s main research interests are in the field of Robot Perception. In particular, he is working on neurorobotics, RGB-D people tracking for camera network, and service robotics.

Menegatti is Associated Editor of the journals: “Robotics and Autonomous Systems” (Elsevier), “IPSJ Transactions on Computer Vision and Applications” (Springer), “Frontiers in Neurorobotics” (Frontiers), “International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems” (Sage).

Ettore Ambrosini

Ettore Ambrosini graduated in Psychology in 2009 at the University “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti and earned a PhD in Neuroimaging in 2013 at the same University. After a post-doctoral position at the University of Chieti (2013), he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Neuroscience, University of Padova, where (from 2017) he currently holds the position of Assistant Professor (RTDb).

His research interests include the understanding of the organization and the neural underpinnings of executive functions, the perception of objects and their semantic representation, and the perception and anticipation of others’ goal-directed actions. To study these topics, he uses different techniques such as psychophysics, eye tracking, brain stimulation (TMS), and neurophysiology (EEG).

Filippo Romanato

Filippo Romanato is Associate Professor at the Department of Physics “Galileo Galieli” of the University of Padua, where he leads of the local Nanodevices group. http://groups.dfa.unipd.it/nanodevices/index.html

Past positions

• 2008 – 2019. Director of Laboratory for Nanofabrication of Nanodevices (LaNN). http://www.lann.it/
• 2014- 2019. Group leader of the biomedical characterization group at the Institute of Pediatric Research – Fondazione Città della Speranza (Padova)
• 2014 -2019. Scientific advisor for SM-Optics (Milan), multinational photonic system industry https://www.sm-optics.com/
• 1998 Senior researcher and associate member of IOM-CNR, and member of scientific committee of the Facility of Nanofabrication at TASC. https://www.iom.cnr.it/lilit-beamline

Education

• 1989 He graduated top score in Physics from the University of Padua in 1989,
• 1994 PhD in Physics in 1994 at Dep.

Francesca Simion

Present position

Full professor MPSI-04 (Developmental Psychology), University School of Psychology, University of Padova, Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation (DPSS)

Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience and Developmental Cognitive Psychology.

Director of the Neonatal Lab, located in UOC Intensive Care Unit and Neonatal Pathology, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health Università di Padova- Azienda Ospedaliera.

Member of the Scientic Committees ERC and ANF.

Major Research interests

The focus of my research is Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, the study of functional brain development over the first years of life. The key questions concern the innate predispositions of the human system at birth and how specialized cognitive functions emerge in the brain during development.

Giorgia Cona

Giorgia Cona, PhD, is an assistant professor (Ricercatore di Tipo B) at the University of Padova, Department of General Psychology.

She received a Master’s degree in Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Behavioural Neuroscience (110/110 cum laude) in 2008 at the University of Padova. She earned a PhD. in Psychobiology in 2012. She spent a period abroad in 2011 working at the University of Toronto, in the Morris Moscovitch’s Lab.

From 2012 to 2016, she had post-doc positions at the Department of Neuroscience and the Department of General Psychology (University of Padova). In 2017, she become lecturer (RTDa) at the Department of General Psychology.

Giovanni Mento

Giovanni Mento is Research Assistant Professor (RTD-B) in Developmental Neuropsychology and EEG recording and Analysis at the Department of General Psychology of the University of Padua. He received his master degree in Psychology (2005) and his PhD in Psychobiology (2009) at the University of Padua. During his PhD, He visited the Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at the INSERM-CEA ‘Cognitive Neuroimaging unit’ CEA/SAC/DSV/DRM/NeuroSpin, Saclay (Paris). He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of General Psychology of the University of Padua (2009-2016).

His research interests are in the field of Cognitive Neurosciences, Developmental Cognitive Neurosciences and Developmental Neuropsychology. His main research topic is the investigation of the brain predictive and anticipatory activity in a developmental neuroconstructivist perspective, with a special interest about how top-down and bottom-up temporal expectancy interplay to shape multiple cognitive domains, including attention, motor preparation, working memory and inhibitory control.

Giovanni Sparacino

Giovanni Sparacino received the MSc (summa cum laude) in Electronics Engineering from the University of Padova in 1992 and the PhD in Bioengineering from the Polytechnic of Milan in 1996.

From 1997 to 1998 he was Research Engineer at the Department of Audiology and Phoniatrics of the University of Padova. Then, he joined the Department of Information Engineering as Assistant Professor of Bioengineering. Since 2005 he is Associate Professor at the same department, where he is presently in charge of teaching “Medical Informatics” and “Biological Data Analysis”.

Since 2004 he is member of the Board of Professors of the “PhD School in Information Engineering”.

Ivan Marchionni

January 2017 – Present Assistant Professor of Physiology, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, Italy

May 2015 – December 2016 Senior Post-Doctorate, Synaptic Neuroscience Center, Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa, Italy

October 2014 – March 2015 Assistant Project Scientists II, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine (UCI), USA.

July 2011 – September 2014 Assistant Project Scientists I, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of California, Irvine (UCI), USA.

November 2007 – June 2011 Post-Doctorate, Department of Physiology, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois (USA)

May 2003 – October 2007 PhD in Molecular Neuroscience SISSA/ISAS (International School for Advanced Studies) Trieste, Italy

September 1995 – February 2002 Degree in Biological Sciences (specialization in Molecular Biology) University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ Italy

Judit Gervain

Judit Gervain is a Full Professor at the Department of Developmental and Social Psychology. She is trained as a theoretical linguistic, obtained a PhD in 2002 in Cognitive Neuroscience under the mentorship of Jacques Mehler from SISSA, Trieste, Italy. She then worked as a post doctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. In 2009, she took up a researcher position at the CNRS, in Paris, France, from which she moved to the University of Padua in 2020.

Her research focuses early speech perception and language acquisition in typically developing monolingual, bilingual infants as well as in infants with hearing difficulties.

Livio Finos

Livio Finos is Associate Professor at the University of Padova.

Previously he has been Assistent Professor (’08-’14) at Department of Statistical Sciences University of Padua (SSD secs-s/01) and held a Researcher position at Department of Medical Statistics and Bioinformatics (MSBI)

at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). Advisor: Dr. J. Goeman. Also member of Bioinformatics Center of Expertise (’08-’09)

As a post-doc, he has held positions at CIBB, University of Roma “Tor Vergata” (2007- 2008) and at University of Ferrara.

He received his M.S. in Demographic Statistics and Statistics for the Social Sciences (2000) and his Ph.D. in Statistics (2004) from the University of Padua.

Luca Tonin

Luca Tonin received the Ph.D. degree in robotics from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, in 2013. He then pursued three years of postdoctoral research at the Intelligent Autonomous System laboratory, the University of Padova, Italy. Since 2016, he has been senior postdoctoral researcher at EPFL. He is currently Assistant Professor (RTdA) at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Padova. His research is strongly characterized by a commitment to the brain-machine interface (BMI) field and the intertwined neuroscientific and engineering aspects. He dedicated the past decade to explore new solutions for advanced interactions between user, BMI and external devices.

Luisa Sartori

Academic Background

Doctor of Philosophy – Perception and Psychophysics

Visiting Scholar at University of Edinburgh (GB) in 2003, University College of London (UK) in 2007, Melbourne University (Australia) in 2010, McMaster University (Canada) in 2015

Present Position

Assistant Professor, University of Padova, Department of General Psychology. Principal Investigator of S.I.R. project (Scientific Independence of young Researchers) granted by Italian Ministry of Instruction, University and Research (amount € 260.000,00). Italian Professorship Qualification in 2014, scientific sector: M-PSI/02 – Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology. Professor of Psycobiology since 2016

Main Research Interests

Neural basis of motor control, with a strong focus on interpersonal synchronization
Attention and social interactions: Neurophysiological and functional neuroimaging studies (TMS, EMG, fMRI and 3-D motion tracking)
Neurorehabilitative protocols for patients with localized impairment on cortical motor areas
Comparative approach to monkeys’ grasping behaviors in naturalistic settings
Robotics applications aimed at increasing artificial agents’ skills in human environment

Manfredo Atzori

Manfredo Atzori received a M.Sc. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering in 2006 and 2009 at the University of Padova.
He is Assistant Professor at the Department of Neuroscience of the University of Padova. He has been research scientist at the Institute of Information Systems of the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais) since 2011.
His research interests are related to the development of machine learning techniques targeting multimodal data analysis, particularly in the biomedical domain.
Since 2019 he is the Scientific Coordinator of the Horizon 2020 project ExaMode, involving seven international partners and targeting weakly-supervised knowledge discovery from multimodal medical data, such as text and images, in the context of digital pathology (htttp://www.examode.eu/).

Marco Dal Maschio

Present position
Assistant professor of Physiology, Department of Biomedical Science, University of Padua.

Bio sketch
Marco Dal Maschio obtained the degree in Physics at the University of Padova in 2002. After completing a PhD in Biotechnologies, he undertook postdoctoral research first at the Italian Institute of Technology, Dept. Neuroscience and Brain Technologies, (Genua, Italy), and then at the Max-Planck Institute for Neurobiology, Dept. Genes-Circuits-Behavior (Martinsried, Germany).

Research Interests
Is it possible to link neuronal activity to functional architectures supporting behavior? A growing toolbox of experimental and analysis methods allows to start addressing these questions in awake or even freely behaving animal models.

Marco Formentin

Marco graduated in Physics in 2004 and earned a doctorate in Mathematics in 2009 at the University of Padova. From 2017 he holds the position of assistant professor (RTDb) at the Department of Mathematics “Tullio Levi-Civita” of the University of Padova.

His primary research topic is the understanding of systems made up of a large number of interacting agents and possible applications in complex systems ranging from ecology to interactive human dynamics.

Recent interests are:

1) mechanisms for the emergence of collective periodic behavior;
2) mathematical ecology: in particular mechanisms that enhance biodiversity;
3) modeling and statistics for complex human dynamics.

Marco Solmi

Dr. Marco Solmi graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 2008, completed the residency “cum laude” in 2014, and visited as Research Scholar the Olin Neuropsychiatric Research Center, directed by prof. Godfrey Pearlson, Yale University, writing his residency thesis on evidence of altered brain function during an eating task in patients with obesity. He completed a Ph.D. in neurosciences at University of Padua in 2017, defending as final dissertation a thesis on multimodal (environmental, behavioral, genetic and neuroimaging) approach to study the gene by environment interaction in patients with eating disorders. From 2014 to 2017 he worked at Abano Hospital, Padua, Italy in the nutritional rehabilitation unit, administering a cognitive-behavioral treatment to patients affected by severe or complicated obesity, or eating disorders.

Marco Zorzi

Marco Zorzi is Full Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Psychology at the University of Padova, and Senior Researcher at IRCCS San Camillo Neurorehabilitation Hospital in Venice-Lido.

Trained in cognitive psychology, computational modelling, computational and cognitive neuroscience during doctoral and postdoctoral studies in Trieste (University of Trieste and SISSA), London (UCL) and Padova, he joined San Raffaele University-Milan in 2000 as assistant professor and the University of Padova in 2001 as associate professor (full professor since 2006).

In 2001 he set up the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, an interdisciplinary research laboratory at the frontiers between cognitive science, computer science and neuroscience, focused on the computational bases of human cognition.

Maria Elena Miletto Petrazzini

Maria Elena Miletto Petrazzini is an assistant Professor (RTDa) at the Department of General Psychology of the University of Padova and she received from M.I.U.R (Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research) the National Scientific Habilitation as Associate Professor in ‘General Psychology, Psychobiology and Psychometrics’ (11/E1).

She got a Master degree in Evolution of Animal and Human Behaviour (cum laude) at the University of Torino in 2009. She obtained a Ph.D in Psychological Sciences at the University of Padova (2014) working on the mechanisms underlying non-verbal numerical abilities using fish as model species. She worked as post-doctoral fellow at the Department of General Psychology, University of Padova (2014-2018) and then she moved to London where she worked as Marie Curie research fellow at Queen Mary University of London (2018-2020).

Maria Pennuto

Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova

I got the Master in Science degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy, in 1996.

In 2000, I obtained the PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Milan, Italy. During the PhD program, I studied the molecular mechanisms that regulate the interaction and sorting of the synaptic vesicle proteins (Mentor: Prof. F. Valtorta).

In between 2001-2004, I carried out a post-doctorate in the Lab of Dr L. Wrabetz at the S. Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, where I worked on the characterization of the pathogenetic mechanisms of neurodegeneration of a mouse model of Charcot-Marie-Tooth 1B neuropathy.

Mario Bonato

Mario Bonato (Master Degree in Experimental Psychology, PhD in Cognitive Science) is a neuropsychologist. He has specific clinical expertise in post-stroke cognitive assessment. Among young researchers, dr Bonato is considered a leading expert in the assessment of visuo-spatial disorders. He devised a very sensitive computer-based dual-task method for the diagnosis of hemispatial neglect following unilateral brain damage. This approach mimics everyday demands and might become the gold standard for the diagnosis of hemispatial neglect in the chronic phase (Bonato, 2015).

He published mostly as leading author (first and corresponding), several scientific articles, in the most widely read and better-ranked peer-reviewed international journals for neuropsychology and experimental psychology.

Mario Bortolozzi

Education and training

2004: Master Degree in Physics, University of Padova.
2008: PhD in Neurobiology, Biosciences School, University of Padova.
2008-2010: Postdoc at the Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM), Padova.
2010-2017: Assistant Professor at the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy “G. Galilei”, University of Padova.
2012-2013: Visiting Scientist at the Dept. of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, UK.
Since 2013: Group leader at the Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM), Padova.
Since 2017: Associate professor at the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy “G. Galilei”, University of Padova.
Since 2018: scientific coordinator of PNC-SISMUR infrastructure for cellular imaging at the Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM), Padova.

Massimo Melucci

Massimo Melucci studied Statistical Science at the University of Padova, Italy. In 1996 he received the PhD degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Padova where he is Associate Professor at the Department of Information Engineering.

Since the early 1990s Massimo Melucci has been carrying out research in Information Retrieval (IR), that is, the automated retrieval of information relevant to users’ needs. In particular, he is interested in modeling, implementating and experimenting advanced methods for indexing, retrieving and ranking documents, recently inspired to physics and engineering disciplines. He has been researching into the correspondence between IR and Quantum Mechanics (QM) both from a theoretical and an experimental perspective, because effective contextual IR systems can be designed within the theoretical framework of QM.

Maurizio Corbetta

Prof. Maurizio Corbetta is the former Norman J. Stupp Professor of Neurology, and Professor of Radiology, Anatomy and Neurobiology, and Bioengineering at Washington University School of Medicine. From 2001-to 2016 he was the Chief of the Division of Neuro-Rehabilitation, and Director of Neurological Rehabilitation at Washington University.

As of October 1, 2016 Dr. Corbetta is Full Professor and Chair of Neurology in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Padua, Italy. He is also the founding director of the new Padua Neuroscience Center, a highly interdisciplinary research programme centered on the idea of brain networks in health and society.

Prof.

Mauro Agostino Zordan

Present position

Associate Professor in Genetics in the School of Science, Department of Biology, University of Padova, Italy; Teaching activity: Genetics, Population Genetics and, Molecular Phylogenetics; Responsible for the ERASMUS International Student Exhange program for the Department of Biology, and within this framework I am actively involved in maintaining a Double Diploma program between our University and the University of Paris VII (France), for the Master’s degree in Molecular Biology and the Master’s degree in Genetics (Magistére en Génétique), respectively.

Major research interests

I have been involved in research aimed at understanding the adaptive meaning of the molecular machinery implicated in the generation and maintenance of biological circadian rhythms in Drosophila melanogaster as well as other insects.

Michela Sarlo

Michela Sarlo (Pesaro, 19/10/1970) is an Associate Professor in Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology at the University of Padova, Department of General Psychology.

She received a MSc in Psychology (1996) and a PhD in Cognitive Sciences (2002) from the University of Padova.

Her primary areas of research and teaching include affective neuroscience and psychophysiology of emotion. Specifically, her current research interests are focused on:

the role of emotion in complex decision-making processes: neural and peripheral correlates of cognitive-emotional interaction;
the processing of threat stimuli in healthy individuals and in specific phobics: the attentional bias and its cortical, autonomic, and behavioral correlates;
the role of REM/NREM sleep on wake emotional processing and cognitive performance: the relationship between EEG activity, autonomic changes and behavior.

Morten Gram Pedersen

Morten Gram Pedersen is Associate Professor in Bioengineering at the Department of Information Engineering, University of Padova, Italy, where he leads the unit for Modeling of Cell Biology. He holds a PhD in Mathematical Biology from the Technical University of Denmark, and has obtained independent funding for several postdoc positions, including a EU Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowships with Lund University Diabetes Centre, Malmö, Sweden.

He is the author of more than 50 papers on peer-reviewed journals (or which 8 as single author, 17 as first author; 30 as corresponding author). Besides collaborations with researchers from several departments of the University of Padova (Depts.

Nicola Cellini

Nicola Cellini is Assistant Professor (RtD-A) at the Department of General Psychology of the University of Padova. He authored about 50 papers in international journals on sleep psychophysiology. His main research interests are the beneficial role of sleep in cognitive functions in healthy and clinical populations and the validation of wearable devices for physiological assessment in ecological conditions. He recently started to work on the development and use of non-invasive techniques to stimulate the sleeping brain to improve memory consolidation and sleep quality in humans.
He has a network of national and international collaborators including researchers from Stanford Research International and University of California Irvine.

Palmieri Arianna

Arianna Palmieri, Ph.D. (Ancona, 04/05/1979) is Assistant Professor at the University of Padova, Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology, where she teaches Psychodynamic Psychiatry from 2014. She obtained the National Academic Qualification as Associate Professor in Psychodynamic Psychology scientific field.

She earned a Ph.D. in Neurosciences from the Medical School of the University of Padova in 2008. Graduated in Psychology at University of Padova in 2003, postgraduated at four-year school in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and qualification to work as Psychotherapist from 2010, member of the College Board of the Ph.D. School in Psychological Sciences of University of Padova from 2015, member of Executive Board of Padua Neuroscience Center from 2016, Visiting Scholar at Stanford University (CA, U.S.A.)

Paola Rigo

Paola Rigo is a Researcher (RTD-B) at the Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation of the University of Padua (2018 – at present). She received her master’s degree in Psychology path Neuroscience (2009) and her Ph.D. in Psychological Sciences and Education (2013) at the University of Trento. As a Ph.D. student, she visited the Family and Child Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Denver (CO, US). She was a post-doctoral fellow at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Health (NICHD -NIH, Bethesda, MD, US; 2014-2015) and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore, SG; 2016-2017).

Scientific Production
She is an author of 22 peer-reviewed articles in international scientific journals (most of them in high-quality journals including Scientific Report Nature, Proceeding of National Academy of Sciences, Developmental Review, NeuroImage and Social neuroscience), 1 book and 4 book chapters.

Paolo Gallo

Paolo Gallo graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 1980 and completed Neurology specialization in 1984 at the University of Padua where he developed skills in neuroimmunology, neuroepidemiology, and inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system, with special focus on multiple sclerosis. Research fellow at the Department of Neurology, Karolinska University of Stockholm, Sweden, in 1983-1985, and at the Neuroimmunology section, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Zurich, in 1987-1988, he further focused his research on the neuroimmunological aspects of inflammatory CNS diseases. He completed the PhD in Neurosciences at the University of Padua in 1990.

In 2004 he became Associate Professor in Neurology at the University of Padua and Head of the Multiple Sclerosis Centre of the Veneto Region.

Patrizia Bisiacchi

Present position

Full Professor M PSI02 (Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology) School of Psychology, University of Padova.

Member of the National Committee for Research (CNGR) -MIUR.

Head of the Master degree (second cycle) in Cognitive Neuroscience and Clinical Neuropsychology (CN2), Department of General Psychology, University of Padova.

Director of the Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory (LCNL) Department of General Psychology, University of Padova.

Major Research interests

Use of brain imaging techniques in the life-span to understand the neural systems involved in cognitive functions
Develop novel interventions aimed at modulating psychological processes and improving the health and quality of life of patients with neurological disorders
Estimation of cortical connectivity in the life-span from high resolution EEG
Co-registration of EEG, fNIRS, TMS and tDCS data in the study of executive functions, time perception, and prospective memory in healthy persons and patients.

Patrizia Trevisi

Associate Professor of Audiology at Padua University (Neurosciences Dept, Med 32); President of the School of Speech Therapy; representative of Pediatric Audiology at Padua Hospital;coordinator of the Universal Hearing Screening in Veneto Region. Member of the CRANIO group of the European Reference Networks fo Rare Diseases and rare ENT conditions.

Her research fields of interest concerne hearing impairment in children, cochlear implants, hearing impairment associated to additional disabilities and rare diseases, clinical application of Cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs).

She is author of about 45 papers on peer reviewed international journals and book chapters and 2 monographs. She also presented lectures to 38 national and international scientific congresses and courses as invited speaker.

Ramón Guevara

Ramón Guevara is a biophysicist and neuroscientist. He studied physics, earning an M.Sc in theoretical condense matter physics at the University of Havana, and an M.Sc in high energy physics at the Abdus Salam International Center of Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy. He defended his Ph.D thesis at the University of Trieste, Italy, in 2003, in the field of theoretical particle physics and cosmology, after which he worked at several universities, research institutes and hospitals in Italy, Spain, France and Canada. He is currently a Research Technologist at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Padua, Italy.

His main research interest is the temporal coordination dynamics in the nervous system, and the investigation of the mechanisms and functional role of neuronal oscillations and synchronization in cognition and brain pathologies.

Roberto Dell’Acqua

Current position

Full professor of Cognitive Science at the School of Psychology of the University of Padova. Former Head of the Department of Developmental Psychology (DPSS). Founder of the Neuroimaging Labs sector in his Department. Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Attention & Performance Society, and Editor of major scientific Journals in the field of Cognitive Science and Neuroscience. Principal investigator of the EEG and NIRS Units at the DPSS.

Research areas

Behavioral investigations of attention limitations in the temporal domain. As a pioneer in the discovery of the attentional blink (AB) phenomenon, several research lines in his labs are still underway to unveil the AB’s EEG and neural correlates.

Samir Simon Suweis

Samir Suweis graduated in Physics in 2008 at the University of Padova, and later earned a doctorate in Environmental Engineering at the Ecole École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in 2011.

After a visiting period as a researcher at the University of Princeton (NJ, USA ), since 2012 he works in the Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Physics at the Physics and Astronomy department, University of Padua, where – from 2016 -he holds the position of assistant professor (RTDb).

His research work is at the interface between hydrology, ecology, and biology in the context of a theoretical framework provided by the physics of complex systems.

Silvia Benavides Varela

Silvia Benavides Varela is an Assistant Professor affiliated to the Department of Developmental and Social Psychology and Department of Neuroscience at Padua University. She is trained as a biotechnology engineer, obtained a PhD in Neuroscience under the mentorship of Jacques Mehler from SISSA, Trieste, Italy. She then worked as a post doctoral researcher at the IRCSS San Camillo Hospital in Venice, and the Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception (CNRS & Université Paris Descartes), in Paris, France.

The most important part of her research focused on developing new methods for unveiling the initial state of memory capacities in humans, the environmental factors that modulate learning, and the properties of the brain systems that support language and mathematic achievements across the life-span.

Simone Cutini

Present Position

Associate Professor, University of Padova, Department of Developmental Psychology.

Head of functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Laboratory, Department of Developmental Psychology.

Major research interests

Use of functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Behavioral and neuroimaging investigation of:

cognitive control
visual short-term memory
numerical cognition

Simone Messerotti Benvenuti

Simone Messerotti Benvenuti, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor (RTD-b) of Clinical Psychology at the Department of General Psychology, University of Padua.

He received his Master’s degree in Experimental Psychology and Cognitive-Behavioural Neuroscience (110/110 cum laude) in 2008 at the University of Padua. He earned a Ph.D. in Psychobiology in 2012 (University of Padua). He spent a period abroad in 2011 as a visiting Ph.D. student at the University of Birmingham, UK.

His research relies on an integration of subjective, behavioral and electrophysiological (e.g., EEG/ERPs, heart rate variability, startle reflex) approaches to study the association between depression and cardiovascular diseases as well as the psychophysiological correlates of emotional processing in individuals at risk of mood disorders.

Stefano De Marchi

Stefano De Marchi is associate professor in Numerical Analysis at the University of Padua with habilitation to full professor since March 2017. He received the degree in Mathematics in 1987 from the University of Padova, the master’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science in 1990 from the University of Padova and the PhD in Computational Mathematics in 1994, “ciclo VI – Consorzio Nord-Orientale”.

He is author and co-author of more than 95 scientific papers, many of them in approximation theory, multivariate polynomial interpolation, approximation by radial basis functions with applications to medical image reconstruction, rational interpolation and quasi Monte Carlo compression.

Stefano Masiero

Present position

Full Professor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Padova.
Director of the Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine School at the University of Padua.
Chair of Rehabilitation Unit at the Padua University-General Hospital.
Director of Laboratory of Robotic and Bioengineering and Clinical of Movement of Padua University-General Hospital.
Postgraduate Diploma in “Epidemiology and Medical Statistics” at the University of Verona.
During his career, he received several academic awards and funding and published over 200 peer reviewed manuscripts including some book of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Major Research Interests:

– Neurorehabilitation with robot-therapy, neurostimulation, etc. in post-stroke subjects

– Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) in Neuromusculoskeletal disorders

– Assessment in Neuromusculoskeletal disorders (gait analysis study, Morphometric analysis, etc.)

Stefano Tortora

Stefano Tortora is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Padova, Italy, since 2021. He obtained a MSc in Biomedical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, in 2017, and he received a PhD in Information Engineering from the University of Padova, Italy, in 2021. He spent 10 months as “visiting student” at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich, and 7 months as “visiting researcher” at the Campus Biotech (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL) in Gèneve, in 2016 and 2019 respectively. The research activity of Stefano Tortora has been strongly characterized by a commitment to the emerging field of Neurorobotics.

Stefano Vassanelli

Present position

Associate professor of Physiology
Lecturer at the Medical, Bioengineering, Pharmacological Sciences and Galilean schools.

Biosketch

Stefano Vassanelli graduated cum Laude in Medicine at the University of Padova and his doctoral thesis was awarded with the “Casati” price from the “Accademia Nationale dei Lincei”.

After completing a PhD in molecular biology and pathology he undertook postdoctoral research first at the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology, Dpt. of Biochemistry, (Portland. Oregon, USA), and then at the Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Dpt. Membrane and Neurophysics (Martinsried, Germany) working on brain-chip interfaces for high-resolution recording of neuronal networks.

Since 2001 he is leading the Neurochip laboratory at the University of Padova with main focus on development of high-density neural interfaces and their use for investigation of information processing mechanisms in brain microcircuits.

Teresa Farroni

Present position

Teresa Farroni is Associate Professor in Developmental Psychology at University of Padua (Italy) with over twenty years of research experience. She is teaching Developmental Psychology (undergraduate courses) and Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (master course) both in Italian and in English.

Scientific production

More than 50 peer-reviewed papers (all in ISI journals); ore than 100 reviews for more than 20 different ISI journals (including Nature, Neuron, PNAS etc.), project proposals (ERC, Cost Actions, etc.), and official reviewer for ANVUR – National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research Systems; reviewer for the following international journals: Nature Neuroscience, Scientific Report (Nature), Proceeding of National Academy of Sciences, Cognition, Developmental Science, Neuropsychologia, Neuron, Brain Research, Psychological Bulletin, Child Development, Cortex, European Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, PlosOne, European Journal of Developmental Psychology, Visual Cognition, Emotion Review, Biological Psychology, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Psychological Science.

Tito Calì

2017-today:Assistant Professor, (RTDB) Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova.

2015-2016: Assistant Professor, (RTDA) Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova.

2013-2015: Senior Research Associate, University of Padova.

2009-2013: Junior Research Associate, University of Padova.

2008: PhD Degree “in signi cum laude”, Biochemistry/Molecular Biology, Theodor Kocher institute, University of Bern (CH) and Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), Bellinzona (CH).

2005: Doctor in Biological Sciences 110/110 “Cum Laude”, Biochemistry/Molecular Biology, University of L’Aquila and Centre d’Immunologie Marseille Luminy (CIML).

Selected Publications

Calì T, et al. The ataxia related G1107D mutation of the plasma membrane Ca²⁺ ATPase isoform 3 affects its interplay with calmodulin and the autoinhibition process.

Valentina Franceschi

I am Researcher (RTD-A) since September 2020 at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Padua.

I graduated in Mathematics at the University of Bologna in 2012. Within my degree I was selected as international student for an exchange program at Temple University, Philadelphia in 2011.
I obtained my PhD in Mathematics in 2016 at the University of Padova.
Between 2016 and 2020 I developed my research through post-doctoral experiences mainly in France, first as research collaborator of the Inria Paris team CAGE, then as Lecteur Hadamard at Université Paris-Sud in 2018 and finally as Marie Skłodowoska Curie Fellow at Sorbonne Université within the individual project MesuR.