Deepak Pandya is a neuroanatomist who is best known for his contributions to the understanding of cortical and subcortical brain connectivity in the macaque using tract-tracing methods. He was born at Julasan, Mehsana District

Mehsana district

Mehsana district is one of the 26 districts of Gujarat state in western India. Mehsana city is the administrative headquarters of this district. The district has a population of over 18 lakhs and an area of over 4,500 km². There are over 600 villages in this district...

 Gujarat in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. He was orphaned, but completed his I.S. in 1953 from Gujarat University

Gujarat University

The Gujarat University is the statewide institution affiliating many reputed colleges across the state of Gujarat, India. It has been given a B++ ranking by National Assessment and Accreditation Council .-History:...

 in India. After obtaining his M.D. degree from Gujarat University in 1957 (and interning in V.S. Hospital in Junagadh

Junagadh

Junagadh is the headquarters of Junagadh district in the Indian state of Gujarat. The city is the 7th largest in Gujarat. The city is located at the foot of the Girnar hills, 355 km south west of state capital Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad. The city is in western India. Literally translated,...

 till 1958), he went to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and did his internship and residency training in Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

.

In 1964, Pandya joined the Department of Anatomy

Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

 at Case Western Reserve, as a postdoctoral fellow

Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...

. He moved to Boston in 1966 and joined the Aphasia

Aphasia

Aphasia is an impairment of language ability. This class of language disorder ranges from having difficulty remembering words to being completely unable to speak, read, or write....

 Research Center at the Boston Veterans Administration Medical Center, and the Departments of Anatomy

Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

 and Neurology

Neurology

Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...

 at Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

 School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

. During his postdoctoral fellowship

Fellowship (medicine)

A fellowship is the period of medical training in the United States and Canada that a physician may undertake after completing a specialty training program . During this time , the physician is known as a fellow...

 and subsequent period in Boston, Pandya focused his research investigations on cortico-cortical

Cerebral cortex

The cerebral cortex is a sheet of neural tissue that is outermost to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain. It plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It is constituted of up to six horizontal layers, each of which has a different...

 connections. In 1969 his laboratory moved to Boston City Hospital. During this time he was appointed as a lecturer in Experimental Neuropathology

Neuropathology

Neuropathology is the study of disease of nervous system tissue, usually in the form of either small surgical biopsies or whole autopsy brains. Neuropathology is a subspecialty of anatomic pathology, neurology, and neurosurgery...

 at Harvard Medical School, and he participated in teaching the Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...

 course at both schools. In 1973, Pandya joined the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Bedford, Massachusetts

Bedford, Massachusetts

Bedford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is within the Greater Boston area, north-west of the city of Boston. The population of Bedford was 13,320 at the 2010 census.- History :...

, as a staff internist. He practiced clinical medicine while continuing his research studies and teaching, until his retirement in 1995. After this, Pandya moved his office to the Department of Anatomy

Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

 & Neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine.

Pandya, along with many colleagues, has made significant contributions in the field of connectivity of cerebral cortex

Cerebral cortex

The cerebral cortex is a sheet of neural tissue that is outermost to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain. It plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It is constituted of up to six horizontal layers, each of which has a different...

. Several postdoctoral and Ph.D. students have received training under Pandya. His research works have been internationally recognized and he has presented his work in conferences in North America and Europe. Currently he is continuing his research studies on comparative brain architectonics in the monkey

Monkey

A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...

 and humans, as well as connectional studies in the monkey.

Pandya and his Slovenian-American wife, Bonnie, are the parents of astronaut Sunita Williams

Sunita Williams

Sunita Williams is a United States Naval officer and a NASA astronaut. She was assigned to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 14 and then joined Expedition 15...

.