Pierfrancesco Ferrari is Associate Professor at the University of Parma, Italy, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland, USA. Ferrari's current research focuses on the functional role and development of parietal and premotor cortical functions in relation to social cognitive processes in human and nonhuman primates. From 2007 to 2008, Ferrari served as Adjunct Scientist at the NIH, Bethesda, USA, conducting research on cortical development in relation to cognitive functions in macaque monkeys. Together with Giacomo Rizzolatti he is Director of the International School of Neurosciences "Sir John Eccles ", at the Ettore Majorana Centre in Erice, Italy.
Giacomo Rizzolatti has been President of the European Brain Behavior Society and Italian Society for Neuroscience. He is the Senior Scientist of the research team that discovered mirror neurons. His main research focus has been the role of the motor cortex in higher cognitive functions. He is member of Accademia dei Lincei, Académie des Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of several prizes: "Golgi Prize for Physiology", "George Miller Award", "Grawemeyer Prize ", Price of Asturias Prize for Science and Technology " Prix J.L. Signoret in Neuropsychologie " from the IPSEN Fondation, and the "Brain Prize from Lundbeck Foundation ".