Danielle Bassett facts for kids

Dani Smith Bassett (born around 1981) is an American scientist. They are a physicist and a neuroscientist who studies the brain. In 2014, they became the youngest person ever to receive a MacArthur fellowship.

Dani Bassett also received a Sloan fellowship in 2014. They are currently a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. They also work as a professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Their research focuses on using network science to understand how the human brain learns. They also study other complex systems in nature and biology.

Early Life and Education

Dani S. Bassett was born Danielle Perry in 1981. They grew up in Lock Haven and Reading, Pennsylvania. At first, Bassett wanted to work in medicine, like other family members. They started studying nursing.

However, Bassett soon discovered a strong interest in mathematics. They decided to combine ideas from physics and math to study the brain. In 2004, Bassett earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Pennsylvania State University.

Bassett then received special scholarships to study at the University of Cambridge in England. They earned a postgraduate certificate in 2005. In 2009, they completed their PhD from King's College, Cambridge.

Career and Research

After finishing their PhD, Dani S. Bassett worked as a researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 2009 to 2013. Since then, they have been a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. They teach in the bioengineering department.

Understanding Brain Connections

Bassett's early work looked at how the brain is organized. They used ideas from network science and complex systems. They studied the brain's "small-world" connections. This means that brain networks have many close connections in small areas. But they also have short paths to connect distant parts.

Bassett's team used mathematical ideas called graph theory. This helped them measure how different parts of the brain are connected. Their models helped scientists understand the brain's structure and how it works.

Brain Disorders and Flexibility

Bassett's research showed how different brain regions are wired. They found that some parts of the brain have a clear hierarchy. Other parts are more mixed. They also studied how these connections are different in people with schizophrenia. They found that the brain's organization was unusual in these individuals. Bassett continues to research how brain networks affect mental disorders.

Bassett has also explored how the brain controls itself. They worked with Fabio Pasqualetti to apply control theory to brain studies. Their first study on this topic was published in 2015.

Another area of Bassett's research is brain flexibility. This is about how often a brain region changes its communication patterns. A brain that switches patterns more often is more flexible. Bassett's team found that a more flexible brain might be better at learning. This research could help people recover from injuries like a stroke.

Awards and Honors

Dani Bassett has received many awards for their work. While in college, they won the Paul Axt Prize for their curiosity. They were also named the Most Achieving Undergraduate Woman of the Year in 2004.

They received the Winston Churchill Scholarship and the NIH-Cambridge Health Science Scholarship for their graduate studies. Later, they received the Alumni Achievement Award from Pennsylvania State University. This award is for great accomplishments by someone under 35.

In 2012, Bassett was named an "American Psychological Society Rising Star." In 2014, they won the Sloan Research Fellowship. Most notably, in September 2014, they were one of 21 winners of the MacArthur fellowship. This is a very important award.

In 2016, Popular Science magazine named Bassett one of the ten most brilliant scientists of the year. In 2017, they received the Lagrange Prize in Complex Systems. In 2018, Bassett won the Erdős–Rényi Prize. This was for their important work on understanding the brain's network structure.

Bassett was made a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2020. In 2021, they became a fellow of the American Physical Society.

Personal Life

Dani S. Bassett has two children. When they were younger, Bassett was the captain of the crew team at King's College, Cambridge. Dani Bassett's twin sibling is Perry Zurn, who is a philosophy professor at American University.

Selected Publications

Books

• Curious Minds: The Power of Connection (2022) : Cambridge: The MIT Press.