Marcello Massimini was trained as a Medical Doctor and received a PhD in Neurophysiology. He worked at Laval University (Canada), at the University of Wisconsin (USA), at the ComaScience Group, University of Liege (Belgium) and is currently Professor of Physiology at the University of Milan (Italy). In 2013, he received the James S. McDonnell Scholar Award. His research team investigates the mechanisms of loss and recovery of consciousness in different conditions such as wakefulness, sleep, dreaming, anaesthesia and coma. His current goal is to bring theoretical and basic neuroscience closer to the bedside of brain-injured patients.; Giulio Tononi received his medical degree and specialized in Psychiatry at the University of Pisa, Italy. After serving as an Army medical officer, he obtained a Ph.D. in neuroscience as a fellow of the Scuola Superiore. He is currently Professor of Psychiatry, Distinguished Professor in Consciousness Science, the David P. White Chair in Sleep Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Sleep and Consciousness. In 2005 he received the NIH Director's Pioneer Award for his work on sleep. His laboratory studies consciousness and its disorders as well as the mechanisms and functions of sleep.