Pierre Magistretti

Professor Emeritus

Pierre J. Magistretti, graduated in Medicine in 1979 from the University of Geneva and received his PhD in Biology in 1982 from UCSD. He joined KAUST in 2012 as Dean of the Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering until 2020. He is the Ibn Sina Distinguished Professor and since 2022 he is Vice President of Research. He is also Professor Emeritus at the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL and at the Departments of Psychiatry at University of Lausanne and University of Geneva.
Pierre Magistretti’s laboratory has discovered some of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the coupling between neuronal activity and energy consumption by revealing the key role that glial cells, in particular astrocytes, play in this physiological process and have a role in neuronal plasticity , memory and neuroprotection, relevant to Alzheimer’s disease.
He is the author of over 300 publications in international peer-reviewed journals; he is regularly on the Clarivate list of highly cited scientists, with an h-index of 121 and > 69’000 citations. He has given over 50 invited lectures during the past five years.
He has been elected at the International Chair 2007-2008 of the Collège de France, Paris. He has been elected in 2021 Foreign Member of Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the oldest Academy of Europe (founded in 1603). He is member of Academia Europea, of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters and has been awarded the Honoris Causa Doctorate from the University of Torino (founded in 1406).
He is the Past-President of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and Past‐President of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO).
He is the co-founder of two start-up companies based on his research in Switzerland, LynceeTech and GliaPharm and one in KSA, NoorDx.