Valentin Dragoi received his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the Technical University of Iasi (Romania) in 1989. He subsequently received his Ph.D. degree from Duke University in 1997. His thesis was focused on learning and adaptive behavior and on computational neuroscience. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Mriganka Sur’s laboratory in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the Picower Center for Learning and Memory at MIT, Valentin investigated the neural circuits of cortical adaptation in behaving animals. In 2003, he became an Assistant Professor at the McGovern Medical School at Univ. of Texas, Houston, where he currently holds the Levit Distinguished Professorship in Neuroscience. Valentin has been awarded a string of awards including the STARs Award from the UT System (2019), NIH BRAIN Awards (2015-present), NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (2010), NIH EUREKA Award (2009), James S. McDonnell Award (2005), Pew Scholars Award (2004), etc.