Principal Speaker- 2022

Head of science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), head of the Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior, and the Torsten N. Wiesel Professor at Rockefeller University

As a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a former investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cori Bargmann, PhD, is an internationally known neurobiologist, geneticist and scientific thought-leader. Her research at the Rockefeller University and at the University of California San Francisco and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, conducted primarily in C. elegans, has produced groundbreaking insights into how genes and neural pathways influence behaviors—discoveries that have implications for understanding systems as complex as the human brain. During President Obama’s administration, Dr. Bargmann helped establish goals and strategies for the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative, which continues to investigate brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, depression, and traumatic brain injury. Additionally, as head of science at CZI since 2016, Bargmann leads an ambitious initiative to help accelerate basic science research and to support the science and technology that will make it possible to cure, prevent or manage all diseases by the end of the century. Bargmann’s numerous accolades and recognitions include the 2012 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience and a 2013 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences; additionally, R&D Magazine named Bargmann its “2017 Scientist of the Year.” Bargmann earned her BS in biochemistry from the University of Georgia and her PhD in cell biology from MIT and the Whitehead Institute.