David C. Van Essen, Ph.D.

David C. Van Essen, Ph.D., is the Alumni Endowed Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis. He has served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neuroscience, founding chair of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping, and president of the Society for Neuroscience. He is a fellow of the AAAS and received the Peter Raven Lifetime Achievement Award from the St. Louis Academy of Science and the Krieg Cortical Discoverer Award from the Cajal Club. Van Essen is internationally known for his research on the structure, function, connectivity, and development of cerebral cortex in humans and nonhuman primates. He led the Human Connectome Project (HCP) and co-leads two Lifespan HCP projects that will acquire and share data on brain circuitry in childhood and in aging.