Giacomo Rizzolatti | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1937-04-28)28 April 1937 (age 88) |
| Alma mater | University of Padua |
| Known for | Mirror neurons |
| Awards | Golgi Prize for Physiology George Miller Award Feltrinelli Prize for Medicine (2000) Herlitzka Prize for Physiology Brain Prize for Neurosciences |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neurophysiology |
| Institutions | University of Parma |
| Academic advisors | Giuseppe Moruzzi |
Giacomo Rizzolatti (born 28 April 1937[1]) is an Italianneurophysiologist who works at theUniversity of Parma. Born inKyiv,UkSSR, he is the Senior Scientist of the research team that discoveredmirror neurons in thefrontal andparietal cortex of themacaque monkey, and has written many scientific articles on the topic. He also proposed thepremotor theory of attention.[2] He is a past president of theEuropean Brain and Behaviour Society. Rizzolatti was the 2007 co-recipient, with Leonardo Fogassi and Vittorio Gallese, for theUniversity of LouisvilleGrawemeyer Award for Psychology.[3] He is an elected member of theAcademia Europaea,[4]National Academy of Sciences,[5] andRoyal Society.[4]
In the same year he was born, he was expelled from theSoviet Union with his parents and other members of the Rizzolatti family, as a foreigner. A law introduced during the Fascist era requires that repatriation take place inFriuli, inClauzetto, as the town of origin of Giacomo's great-grandfather, who emigrated to Kiev in the late 19th century.[6] He then graduated from the Liceo Classico Jacopo Stellini high school in Udine and in 1961 he graduated inMedicine and surgery from theUniversity of Padua, where he also obtained a specialization inNeurology in 1964.
After three years at the Institute of Physiology at theUniversity of Pisa, directed byGiuseppe Moruzzi (and of whom he was a student), in 1967 he became assistant professor and later full professor of Human Physiology at theUniversity of Parma; since 2002, he has been director of theAcademic department of Neuroscience at the same university. Since 2012, he has been teaching Neurophysiological Foundations of Cognitive Functions at the Faculty of Philosophy of theVita-Salute San Raffaele University inMilan.
He spent periods studying and conducting research at the Department of Psychology atMcMaster University and, as a visiting professor, at the Department of Anatomy at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.
From 1985 to 1986, he was president of the European Brain Behavior Society.[7]
He is the coordinator of the group of scientists who, in 1992, in the field ofEvolutionary psychology, discovered the existence ofMirror neuron, motor cells in the brain that are activated both during the execution of purposeful movements and when observing similar movements performed by other individuals, a discovery that, among other things, identified the first physiological basis of empathy. In 1995, they discovered motor resonance in humans.
One of the world's leading neuroscientists, he is a member of theAcademia Europaea, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei,[8] theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the French Academy of Sciences of theInstitut de France. He is an honorary member of the Italian Society for Neuroscience, of which he was president.[9] He was elected a Foreign Member of theRoyal Society in 2021.[10] He has been awarded the 41st (2025) International Prize for Biology by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).[11]
These are listed on the right side of the Wikipedia page:
Media related toGiacomo Rizzolatti at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
  | This Italian scientist article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information. |
