Danielle Bassett

Dani Smith Bassett (born c. 1981[2]) is an American

physicist and systems neuroscientist who was the Dani Bassett
youngest individual to be awarded a 2014 MacArthur Born c. 1981
fellowship.[3][4] Nationality American
Alma mater Pennsylvania State University
Bassett, whose pronouns are they/them,[5][6] was also
(BS)
awarded a 2014 Sloan fellowship.[7] They are currently
University of Cambridge
the J. Peter Skirkanich Professor in the Departments of
(PgCert, PhD)
Bioengineering, Electrical & Systems Engineering,
Physics & Astronomy, Neurology, and Psychiatry at Children Two sons, b. 2011 and 2014 [1]

the University of Pennsylvania[2][8][9][10] and an Awards Sloan Research Fellowship

external professor of the Santa Fe Institute.[11] Their MacArthur fellowship
work focuses on applying network science to the study Erdős–Rényi Prize
of learning in the human brain[2] in addition to the ONR Young Investigator
study of other complex physical and biological Scientific career
systems.[8] Fields physics, neuroscience
Institutions University of California, Santa
Barbara
Early life and education University of Pennsylvania

Dani S. Bassett (born Danielle Perry) was born in 1981 Doctoral Thomas Duke, Edward T.
and was raised in Lock Haven and Reading, advisor Bullmore, Andreas Meyer-
Pennsylvania.[12] Pursuing a passion for medicine, and Lindenberg
following in family footsteps, Bassett began higher Website www.danisbassett.com (http://w
education in an RN program at the Reading Hospital ww.danisbassett.com)
School of Nursing. After discovering a passion for
mathematics, Bassett sought to combine the concepts of physics and mathematics to neuroscience.
Bassett graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor of science in physics in 2004.[3]
Basset received the NIH-Cambridge Scholarship and the Winston Churchill Scholarship and studied at
the University of Cambridge. Bassett received a certificate in postgraduate studies from Churchill
College, Cambridge in 2005 and a doctor of philosophy from King's College, Cambridge in 2009.[13]

Career
Dani S. Bassett became a postdoctoral associate from 2009 to 2011 at the University of California, Santa
Barbara and a Sage Junior Research Fellow from 2011 to 2013. Bassett is currently on the faculty of the
University of Pennsylvania as the J. Peter Skirkanich Professor in the department of bioengineering.[3]

Bassett's early work used and developed concepts in network science and complex systems to understand
the organization of the brain.[3] Bassett focused on the "small-world" topology of the brain, which refers
to networks and the way in which they express dense local clustering and how the presence of
connections leads to a short path of communication between distant nodes. Bassett's research team
applied mathematical concepts in graph theory to small-world analysis to quantify cortical connectivity.
The small-world models Bassett produced introduced a means to understanding the brain's structure and
function.[14]

These topological measures developed early in Bassett's career were used to examine the cortex and its
divisions and wiring to determine the properties that the cortex has. Bassett found that of the various
cortical regions, the multimodal portion of the cortex has hierarchical organizations with low clustering,
and the transmodal portion was more assortative. Bassett applied these concepts to schizophrenic
individuals and noticed that the organization of these portions were abnormal with increasing connection
distances. Bassett continues to research the implications of network behaviors on mental disorders,
particularly schizophrenia.[15]

Bassett also has worked with Fabio Pasqualetti (currently at University of California, Riverside) to apply
control theory to the study of the brain;[16] their initial study on the subject was published in 2015.[17]

Bassett and their team have also been conducting research regarding brain flexibility. Brain flexibility is
how often a region of the brain switches communication patterns. The more often the brain switches
patterns, the more flexible the brain is. They have also found correlations between the ability for the brain
to learn and the flexibility of the brain. Bassett's research may have implications in rehabilitation,
particularly in patients who have had a stroke.[18]

Awards and honors

During their undergraduate studies, Bassett was the sole recipient of the Paul Axt Prize, which is given to
a student who demonstrates commitment to inquiry and fosters intellectual curiosity. They were also a
Schreyer Honors Scholar and were named the Most Achieving Undergraduate Woman of the Year in
2004. Bassett received the Winston Churchill Scholarship and the National Institute of Health-
Cambridge Health Science Scholarship to fund their graduate education. Bassett received the Alumni
Achievement Award from the Schreyer Honors College at Pennsylvania State University for
extraordinary accomplishment under 35 years of age. Bassett was named American Psychological Society
"Rising Star" in December 2012. In January 2014, they won the Sloan Research Fellowship.[13] Most
notably, they were one of the 21 winners of the MacArthur Research Fellowship in September 2014.[3]

In 2016, Bassett was named one of the ten most brilliant scientists of the year by Popular Science
magazine.[19] In 2017, they received the Lagrange Prize in Complex Systems.[20] In 2018, Bassett
received the Erdős–Rényi Prize for "fundamental contributions to our understanding of the network
architecture of the human brain".[21]

Bassett was named a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2020[22]
and a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2021.[23]

Personal life
Dani S. Bassett has two children. During Bassett's earlier years, they captained the crew team at King's
College, Cambridge.[1] Bassett's twin is Perry Zurn, professor at the department of philosophy at
American University.[24]

Selected publications

Books
Curious Minds: The Power of Connection (2022) : Cambridge: The MIT Press .
(ISBN 0262047039)

Articles
Bassett, Danielle S; Felix Siebenhühner; Shennan A Weiss; Richard Coppola; Daniel R
Weinberger (2013). "Intra- and Inter-Frequency Brain Network Structure in Health and
Schizophrenia" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3753323). PLOS ONE. 8 (8):
e72351. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...872351S (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013PLoSO...8
72351S). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0072351 (https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.00723
51). PMC 3753323 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3753323).
PMID 23991097 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23991097).
Bassett, D. S.; B G Nelson; B A Mueller; J Camchong; K O Lim (2012). "Altered resting state
complexity in schizophrenia" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3254701).
NeuroImage. 59 (3): 2196–2207. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.10.002 (https://doi.org/10.1
016%2Fj.neuroimage.2011.10.002). PMC 3254701 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl
es/PMC3254701). PMID 22008374 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22008374).
Bassett, D. S.; E. Bullmore (2006). "Small-World Brain Networks". The Neuroscientist. 12
(6): 512–523. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.132.2709 (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?d
oi=10.1.1.132.2709). doi:10.1177/1073858406293182 (https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1073858
406293182). ISSN 1073-8584 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/1073-8584).
PMID 17079517 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17079517). S2CID 4305469 (https://api.s
emanticscholar.org/CorpusID:4305469).
Bassett, D. S.; A. Meyer-Lindenberg; S. Achard; T. Duke; E. Bullmore (2006). "Adaptive
reconfiguration of fractal small-world human brain functional networks" (https://www.ncbi.nl
m.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1838565). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
103 (51): 19518–19523. Bibcode:2006PNAS..10319518B (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/ab
s/2006PNAS..10319518B). doi:10.1073/pnas.0606005103 (https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpna
s.0606005103). ISSN 0027-8424 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0027-8424).
PMC 1838565 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1838565). PMID 17159150
(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17159150).
Bassett, D. S.; E. Bullmore; B. A. Verchinski; V. S. Mattay; D. R. Weinberger; A. Meyer-
Lindenberg (2008). "Hierarchical Organization of Human Cortical Networks in Health and
Schizophrenia" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2878961). Journal of
Neuroscience. 28 (37): 9239–9248. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1929-08.2008 (https://doi.org/
10.1523%2FJNEUROSCI.1929-08.2008). ISSN 0270-6474 (https://search.worldcat.org/iss
 n/0270-6474). PMC 2878961 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2878961).
PMID 18784304 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18784304).

External links
Danielle Bassett (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=siYpAPsAAAAJ) publications
indexed by Google Scholar

References
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Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Danielle_Bassett&oldid=1263101395"