After attending the University of Virginia as a Jefferson Scholar, Aniruddh D. Patel obtained his Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University, where he studied with Edward O. Wilson.  His research focuses on how the brain processes music and language, especially what the similarities and differences between the two reveal about each other and about the brain itself. Patel is president of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition and is currently the Esther J. Burnham Senior Fellow at The Neurosciences Institute.