Emilio Bizzi examines how the central nervous system creates and updates its internal representations, enabling movement under changing environmental conditions.

Investigator, McGovern Institute; Institute Professor, MIT Bizzi lab site

Contact phone: 617 253 5769 fax: 617 258 5342 MIT Bldg 46-6189A email: ebizzi@mit.edu

Emilio Bizzi's research focuses on how the central nervous system translates brain messages signaling motor intent into muscle activation. He recently discovered that the spinal chord contains a map of limb postures that is key to this transformation.

Emilio Bizzi is an MIT Institute Professor, an Investigator in the McGovern Institute, and the Eugene McDermott Professor in the Brain Sciences and Human Behavior. He earned an M.D. from the University of Rome in 1958 and a Ph.D. from the University of Pisa in 1968. Dr. Bizzi joined the MIT faculty in 1968 and served as director of the Whitaker College of Health Sciences and Technology from 1983 to 1989. Dr. Bizzi chaired the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences from 1986 to 1997. He was appointed Investigator at the McGovern Institute in 2001. Among many other honors, Dr. Bizzi became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1968 and the Institute of Medicine in 2005. He received the President of Italy's Gold Medal for Scientific Contributions in 2005 and in 2006 was elected as President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.