Antonio Damasio

In his presentations, Antonio Damasio draws extensively on his distinguished career as a leading neuroscientist and neurologist yet articulates himself in plain terms that a layperson can easily wrap their head around.

Damasio's education began at the University of Lisbon Medical School in Portugal. Before completing his doctorate in Lisbon, he worked as a research fellow in Boston at the Aphasia Research Center.

After earning his MD, Damasio returned to the United States, eventually becoming the M.W. Van Allen Professor and Head of Neurology at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. In 2005, Damasio took up his current position as the David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Southern California.

As a researcher Damasio is keenly interested in topics such as memory, language, emotion, decision-making and consciousness. In his presentations, Damasio articulates the key points of his most influential work, which seeks to demonstrate the essential role emotions play in higher-level cognition.