Takao K. Hensch, PhD, is joint professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School at Boston Children’s Hospital, and professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard’s Center for Brain Science. He currently directs the NIMH Silvio O. Conte Center at Harvard, and conducts basic neuro-biological research on developmental critical periods and the origins of mental illness.

After training with J Allan Hobson (Harvard), Masao Ito (MPH, Univ Tokyo) and Wolf Singer (Fulbright Fellow, Max-Planck Institute), Hensch received his PhD with Michael Stryker (UCSF) in 1996. He then helped to launch the RIKEN Brain Science Institute (Japan) as lab head for Neuronal Circuit Development and Group Director (now special advisor).

Hensch has received several honors, notably the Mortimer Sackler Prize (2016), the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (2007) and Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award both in the U.S. (2005) and Japan (2001). He serves on several editorial boards, including Neuron and Frontiers in Neural Circuits (chief editor).