Piero Perucca, MD, PhD, FRACP, FAES, serves as Professor of Adult Epilepsy and Deputy Academic Lead in the Department of Medicine (Austin Health), Melbourne Medical School at the University of Melbourne. He is also Director of the Bladin-Berkovic Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at Austin Health, Head of the Epilepsy Program at the Melbourne Brain Centre, Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Monash University, Honorary Consultant in Neurology at Alfred Hospital, and Honorary Clinician-Research at Royal Melbourne Hospital. Originally from Italy, he earned his MD and Specialist qualification in Neurology from the University of Pavia. Perucca completed specialized training in epileptology at prestigious institutions: the Neurological Institute of New York at Columbia University, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center at Case Western Reserve University, the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University, and the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He was awarded his PhD by the University of Melbourne in 2017 for research on genetic factors in the aetiology of focal epilepsies and epilepsy therapy outcomes. Supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leadership Investigator Grant, he has risen rapidly in academia, becoming full Professor in 2024.

Perucca's research program spans multiple facets of epileptology, including the genetics of epilepsy, electroencephalography, epilepsy and pregnancy, pharmacological and surgical treatments of epilepsy, teratogenesis, antiepileptic drugs, focal epilepsy, and epilepsy surgery, with a focus on genomic and electrophysiological biomarkers of epilepsy outcomes. He has produced over 150 research outputs, including more than 100 peer-reviewed articles published in leading journals such as The Lancet Neurology, Nature Reviews Disease Primers, Brain, Annals of Neurology, and Neurology. Select publications include "Epilepsy" in Nature Reviews Disease Primers (2018), "Drug resistance in epilepsy" in The Lancet Neurology (2023), "Epilepsy-pregnancy registries: An update" in Epilepsia (2025), and "Precision therapies for genetic epilepsies in 2025: promises and pitfalls" (2025). His contributions have earned him prestigious accolades, such as the Michael Prize 2023 from the Michael Foundation for work in pharmacology and pharmacotherapy, the American Academy of Neurology's Dreifuss-Penry Epilepsy Award (2022), the Leonard Cox Award (2021) from the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists, and selection as a mentee in the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences program (2022). Perucca chairs the Victorian Epilepsy Centres, holds leadership positions in the International League Against Epilepsy (including chair of the Genetics Commission), the American Epilepsy Society, and the Epilepsy Society of Australia (current President). He serves as Associate Editor for Epilepsia Open and on the editorial boards of Neurobiology of Disease and Epigraph.

Professional Email: piero.perucca@unimelb.edu.au