Chiara Manzini is an Associate Professor at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in the Child Health Institute of New Jersey and the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology. She initially trained in Human Genetics at the University of Pavia in Italy and received her PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University. She then completed postdoctoral training at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Neurogenetics studying multiple types of brain malformations and non-syndromic intellectual disability and autism. The main goal of  Chiara Manzini’s research is to bridge the genetics and mechanisms of disease to identify genes that are essential for human cognition and to define the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders focusing on autism and neuromuscular disorders. Before joining the Scientific Council, Chiara Manzini was co-Chair of the ISSNAF DC Chapter and has been involved in multiple efforts to promote interaction among Italian scholars between Italy and the US, including founding the Armenise-Harvard Summer Fellowship for Italian students.