Dr. Pierpaoli received his M.D. at the university of Milan, Italy, followed by a specialization in Neurology, and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience. His early research experience was in neuropharmacology with an internship at the Institute for Pharmacological Research "Mario Negri” in Milan, Italy. Dr. Pierpaoli has spent most of his scientific career at the NIH, first at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), then at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and currently in the Laboratory on Quantitative Medical Imaging, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB).  Dr. Pierpaoli’s research is aimed at extracting accurate and reproducible biomarkers from data acquired with non-invasive imaging techniques, primarily Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). He is mainly known for his contributions in the field of diffusion MRI applied to brain studies.  Dr. Pierpaoli is a fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance and received the NIH Award of Merit for performing the first diffusion tensor imaging studies of the human brain.