Antonio Damasio keynote speaker

Antonio Damasio is Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, Psychology and Philosophy, and Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Trained as both neurologist and neuroscientist, Damasio has made seminal contributions to the understanding of brain processes underlying affect, decision-making and consciousness. His work has made a major impact in neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. He is the author of several hundred scientific articles and is considered one of the most eminent psychologists of the modern era. He is one of the most cited scientists worldwide. [Google Scholar H Index is 167; with 249,508 citations and Web of Science H Index is 102; with 57,126 citations.]

Damasio’s recent work addresses the biology of consciousness, the role of life regulation in the generation of cultures, and the problems derived from the non-biological nature of AI.

Damasio’s books include Descartes’ Error, The Feeling of What Happens, Looking for Spinoza, Self Comes to Mind, The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures, and Feeling and Knowing, which are translated worldwide and taught in numerous universities.

Damasio is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa. He has received numerous prizes, among them the Paul MacLean Award for Outstanding Neuroscience Research in Psychosomatic Medicine [2019], the International Freud Medal [2017], the Grawemeyer Award [2014], the Honda Prize [2010], the Prince of Asturias Prize in Science and Technology [2005], the Nonino Prize as Master of Our Time [2003] and the Pessoa Prize [1992].

He holds Honorary Doctorates from leading universities, some shared with his wife Hanna, e.g. the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne [EPFL], 2011 and the Sorbonne [Université Paris Descartes], 2015.

In 2013 the Escola Secundária Antonio Damasio was dedicated in his native Lisbon. From 2016 to February of 2024, Damasio was a member of the Council of State of Portugal.