Senior Research Scientist

Monica joined IHMC in September 2025 as a Senior Research Scientist working with the Healthspan, Resilience, and Performance team. She studied art, cognitive neuroscience and has a PhD in humanoid technologies.

She is the Principal Investigator of the Unit for Visually Impaired People of the Italian Institute of Technology.  Her lab there includes 35 researchers, including cognitive neuroscientists and engineers. One of her works has been listed in the faculty of 1000 (Gori et al. Curr Biol, 2008). In 2012, she won the Italian TR35, in 2020 an ERC STG and in 2022 an ERC PoC. In February 2025 she was featured as the scientist of the month in Current Biology. She is listed among the top 2 percent of researchers worldwide whose work is most cited in the discipline of psychology according to the Elsevier Data Repository.

Her works covers a broad array of subjects and disciplines, an includes a focus on multisensory integration and sensory interaction as it influences an organism’s ability to relate to the external world.

In researching the complex processes behind sensory information processing and integration to understand reaction time, precision, and response accuracy. Her work shows how visual modality is critical in developing audio and tactile integration. She is pioneering the connection between sensory interaction and multisensory development to offer models to disentangle the basic principles that subtend our ability to learn to interact in a multisensory environment and to develop science-driven technology to improve the quality of life of sensory impaired individuals.

In the free time Monica loves producing multisensory paintings and playing with her three kids and her husband.