Dr. Ursula Bellugi is Professor at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, as well as Director of the Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience. Bellugi studies the biological foundations of language and other cognitive functions and their genetic basis. Much of her research is in collaboration with her husband, Edward S. Klima. Both have doctorates from Harvard University and they have received many awards for their research, including two MERIT awards from the National Institute of Child Health and Development, a Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National Institute on Deafness, and the Foundation IPSEN Prize in Neuronal Plasticity, together with Torsten Wiesel and Wolfgang Singer. Dr. Bellugi has served on an Advisory Council to the NIH, and is an Associate of the Neurosciences Research Program as well as the Dana Brain Alliance. Her research has been presented to Congress as part of the Decade of the Brain and at recent symposia on Genes, Brain and Cognition. Drs. Bellugi and Klima have been awarded the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association.

Bellugi has co-authored several hundred papers and books including the award-winning The Signs of Language and What the Hands Reveal About the Brain as well as the forthcoming book Journey from Cognition to Brain to Gene: Perspectives from Williams.