Gaetano Di Chiara

Born in Cagliari on 22 November 1945, he graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Cagliari. After graduation, he spent about three years at the Laboratory of Chemical Pharmacology of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland (USA). Back in Italy, he became research fellow and then tenured assistant at the Chair of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, at the same University. During that period he also taught Toxicology and Pharmacology II at the Faculty of Medicine.

In 1979 he won the competition for a chair in Pharmacology and was called by the Faculty of Medicine to hold the chair of Toxicology. After the three years as associate professor he was called by the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Cagliari, where he founded the Department of Toxicology, which he has chaired as Dean since 1997.

Gaetano Di Chiara has been President of the Conference of Deans of Pharmacy, of the European Behavioural Pharmacology Society (EBPS) and of the Federation of the European Neuroscience Societies (FENS). He is among the most cited researchers (Highly Cited) according to ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) in Philadelphia (USA) in the disciplines of Neuroscience and Pharmacology. His research concerns the mechanism of action of centrally acting drugs (anti-Parkinson, antidepressant, neuroleptic drugs) and the neurotransmitter mechanisms underlying predatory, stereotyped and addictive behaviour.