Prof. Petra Susan Hüppi, is a clinician in pediatrics, specialist in newborn medicine and developmental pediatrics in Switzerland. Since 1998 she runs the Child Development Unit and the Division of Development and Growth at the Department of Pediatrics, Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland.
Next to her clinical work, she is a full professor at the University of Geneva and has international research activities with a visiting scientist position at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. She has directed numerous research projects both at Harvard Medical School and the University of Geneva, aimed at the better understanding of early human brain development. Her research has helped in a major way to understand the specific brain deficits found in prematurely born children, highly relevant for the cognitive and socio-emotional development of children and adolescents.
Her international status is further documented through her various commitments in major scientific societies and organizations. Currently she serves as a Vice president of the European Society for Pediatric Research, is honorary Fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and is an elected member of the National Research Council of Switzerland.
In order to join forces to study scientifically both the care and medical interventions on children’s long-term development, she founded the European association for developmental care.
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