Dr. John Mazziotta, M.D., Ph.D., BMMRO and BMSF Founding Director Emeritus

John C. Mazziotta, M.D., Ph.D. is currently the Vice Chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences and CEO of UCLA Health. He previously served as Dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM), Associate Vice Chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences, Executive Vice Dean of DGSOM, Chair of the Department of Neurology and Director of the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center. He was one of the Founding Directors of the Brain Mapping Medical Research Organization and of the Brain Mapping Support Foundation. After receiving his B.A. and M.A. from Columbia University in 1972, Dr. Mazziotta obtained an M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroanatomy and Computer Science from Georgetown University in 1977. Following an internship at Georgetown, he completed Neurology and Nuclear Medicine training at UCLA and joined the faculty in 1983.

As an expert in brain imaging, Dr. Mazziotta established the Brain Mapping Center at UCLA in 1993. He was the principal investigator of the International Consortium for Brain Mapping, with the goal of developing the first atlas of the human brain to include behavioral, demographic, imaging, and genetic data from 7,000 subjects.

Since beginning this work, Dr. Mazziotta has published more than 260 research papers and eight texts. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the Oldendorf Award from the American Society of Neuroimaging, the S. Weir Mitchell Award and the Wartenberg Prize of the American Academy of Neurology, the Von Hevesy Prize from the International Society of Nuclear Medicine, the 1996 Medical Science Award from the UCLA Medical Alumni Association, election to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Honorary Doctorate from l’Université de Caen and membership in the Royal College of Physicians.

Browse Dr. Mazziotta's Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center Profile & Publications

Dr. Roger P. Woods, M.D., Director

Roger Woods, M.D. graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Chemistry from Washington University in 1980. He received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1984 and completed residencies in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington in 1987 and in Neurology at UCLA in 1991. He completed a Neuroscience Imaging fellowship in 1993, joining the Neurology faculty at UCLA immediately thereafter. He is currently a Professor of Neurology and of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA.

Dr. Woods has been a member of the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center since its inception and has served as its Director of Laboratories since 2003 and more recently as Director of the Brain Mapping Center since March of 2015.

Dr. Woods' research interests include software development for the analysis of imaging data, brain atlases of normative human imaging data, imaging of neurologic and psychiatric disorders, genetic influences on brain structure and function, and model systems of brain development.

Browse Dr. Woods' Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center Profile & Publications

Dr. Marco Iacoboni, M.D., Ph.D., Professor

Dr. Marco Iacoboni is Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Lab at the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center. Dr. Iacoboni is a neurologist and neuroscientist originally from Rome, Italy. He joined the faculty of the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at UCLA in 1999.

Dr. Iacoboni investigates the neural basis of sensory-motor integration, imitation and social cognition in humans with functional magnetic resonance imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). In particular, his group investigates the human mirror neuron system and its role in social behavior and its disorders.

Dr. Iacoboni’s work, funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, has been covered by the New York Times (front page), Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, The Economist, and major TV networks. Dr. Iacoboni’s book on mirror neurons, entitled Mirroring People: The New Science of Empathy and How We Connect with Others, is published by Farrar, Straus, & Giroux (hard cover) and Picador (paperback).

Browse Dr. Iacoboni's Google Scholar Page & his Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center Profile & Publications

Dr. Mirella Dapretto, Ph.D., Professor

Dr. Dapretto is currently Professor in the UCLA Dept. of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. After receiving a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the UCLA Psychology Department, with a minor in Behavioral Neuroscience, Dr. Dapretto acquired expertise in neuroimaging methods – particularly functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) – as a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center.

Since joining the UCLA faculty in 1999, Dr. Dapretto's research has focused on imaging of typical and atypical brain development in infants, children, and adolescents.

Browse Dr. Dapretto's Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center Profile & Publications

Dr. Katherine Narr, Ph.D., Professor

Dr. Narr is Professor in the Department of Neurology at UCLA and a faculty member of the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center.

For over 25 years, Dr. Narr's research has focused on using multiple imaging methods, including structural, functional and diffusion imaging and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1HMRS) to facilitate a deeper understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms and genetic contributions associated with schizophrenia, depression and other adult and pediatric disorders. Her recent work has focused on using imaging to understand mechanisms underlying treatment-resistant depression.

Browse Dr. Narr's Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center Profile & Publications

Dr. David W. Shattuck, Ph.D., Professor

Dr. Shattuck is Professor in the Department of Neurology at UCLA and a faculty member of the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center.

Dr. Shattuck's research interests are focused on the development and application of novel computational approaches for the processing and analysis of brain images.

Dr. Shattuck's work has developed novel algorithms related to brain image analysis, including image segmentation topological filtering of data, image registration, and interactive delineation of data. Many of these methods are available in the publicly released software package, BrainSuite (http://brainsuite.org).

Browse Dr. Shattuck's Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center Profile & Publications

Dr. Hong-Wei Dong, Ph.D., Professor

Dr. Dong is a Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at UCLA

Dr. Dong's research focuses on characterizing brain anatomy and connectivity across species at macro-, meso-, and micro-scales.

Browse Dr. Dong's Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center Profile & Publications

Dr. Shantanu H. Joshi, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Dr. Joshi received a BE degree in Electronics and Telecommunication from the University of Pune, India in 1998, and MS, and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Florida State University in 2003 and 2007, respectively.

Dr. Joshi's PhD research was carried out in the Department of Statistics, at Florida State University under the direction of Dr. Anuj Srivastava, where Dr. Joshi was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Research and Creativity Award by the Office of Research at Florida State University in 2007.

Dr. Joshi is currently an Associate Professor in the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, Department of Neurology, University of California Los Angeles. His research focuses on quantitative morphological characterization of shape in the brain, with particular emphasis on longitudinal studies in children exposed at an early age to injuries, toxins (such as alcohol), or genetic disorders. His work in morphology has been applied in collaborative research that led to an identification of a new genus of Lambeosaurine dinosaurs that was officially listed in the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature in 2012.

Browse Dr. Joshi's Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center Profile & Publications

Dr. Allan MacKenzie-Graham, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Allan MacKenzie-Graham completed his Ph.D. training in Neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2006, specializing in multimodal imaging and brain atlasing. As a postdoctoral fellow, he applied these techniques to mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the most commonly used model of multiple sclerosis (MS). He was appointed as an Assistant Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Neurology at UCLA in 2010 and accepted joint appointments in the Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program and the Department of Physics and Biology in Medicine in 2015.

Dr. MacKenzie-Graham’s research interests lie in understanding the mechanisms that underlie gray matter atrophy in MS through the use of informative animal models, primarily EAE. His work has demonstrated progressive gray matter atrophy in the cerebella and cerebral cortices of mice with EAE and their relation to neuronal loss.

Browse Dr. MacKenzie-Graham's Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center Profile & Publications

Dr. Daniel Tward, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Dr. Tward received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Biomedical Engineering and Neuropathology at the Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute. He joined UCLA with a joint appointment in the Department of Neurology and the Department of Computational Medicine in 2020.

Dr. Tward's research makes use of imaging data to understand how the brain's structure is modified by disease processes. He develops and uses computational techniques to study imaging data from diverse sources including research imaging, clinical imaging, and neuropathology. He has a particular interest in structural brain changes in the medial temporal lobe associated with early Alzheimer's disease.

Browse Dr. Twards's Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center Profile & Publications

Dr. Katy Cross, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Dr. Cross received her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from UCLA and completed clinical training in Neurology and in Movement Disorders at UCLA before joining the faculty in the Department of Neurology in 2021.

Dr. Cross uses imaging, behavioral and electrophysiologic techniques to understand symptom heterogeneity in movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease

Browse Dr. Cross' Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center Profile & Publications

Dr. Mayank Jog, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Dr. Jog received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at UCLA in 2017. His post-doctoral training at UCLA included receipt of an NIH K99/R00 award. He joined the UCLA faculty in the Brain Mapping program in Neurology in 2025.

Dr. Jog's research focuses on the use of imaging techniques to optimize neuromodulation in human brain disorders, with a particular focus of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for treatment of depression.

Browse Dr. Jog's Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center Profile & Publications