Detailed Biography:

Dr. Molnar-Szakacs is a Research Neuroscientist at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and co-ordinator of the Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity. Dr. Molnar-Szakacs received a Bachelor of Science with Honors from Dalhousie University in Neuroscience and Biology in 2000. He earned his doctorate in Neuroscience from UCLA in 2005, studying the neural basis of non-verbal social communication using a variety of techniques, including behavioral studies, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). He is also a graduate of the FPR-UCLA Center for Culture, Brain and Development’s pre-doctoral training program. He spent a year as a post-doctoral fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland studying the connections between the human mirror neuron system and social brain using electrical neuroimaging (EEG) and fMRI. He joined UCLA’s Semel Institute in 2006. Dr. Molnar-Szakacs’ research projects include studies of the brain bases of self-representation, social communication and creativity in developing and adult populations.