Dr. Jacopo Annese, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in Residence in the Dept. of Radiology at the U.C. San Diego School of Medicine, President and CEO of the Institute for Brain and Society, and founder of the Brain Observatory and the Human Brain Library, a neuroimaging database to fight brain disease. In 2009 the Observatory was charged with postmortem examination and neuroimaging of the brain of Henry Moliason (“H.M.”), a patient with severe anterograde amnesia, one of the most famous medical cases in the history of neurology.

Dr. Annese is a computational neuroanatomist whose formal training stems from a wide background in the biological sciences and the neurosciences. He is particularly experienced in neuroanatomical and histological techniques, and computer-aided microscopy and morphometry by neuroimaging analysis. He has designed novel techniques for the quantitative study of neurological structures with MRI and histology. Dr. Annese’s primary goal in the field of neuroscience is to conduct research that is open to public engagement and promotes the highest standards in data sharing and collaboration within the scientific community.

Dr. Annese graduated from the University of Rome in Italy with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology and zoology. He earned a master’s degree in neurological sciences at University College London, U.K., and completed the Ph.D. program in cognitive neuroscience at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH. He subsequently trained in computational anatomy at the Montreal Neurological Institute, Canada, and at the Laboratory of Neuroimaging at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research has been featured in a variety of broadcasting and publishing media, including PBS NOVA, National Geographic, BBC, Discovery Channel, The New York Times, Bloomberg News, Financial Times, Esquire, and Discover Magazine.