Dani Smith Bassett (born c. 1981[2]) is an American physicist and systems neuroscientist who was the youngest individual to be awarded a 2014 MacArthur fellowship.
[12] Pursuing a passion for medicine, and following in family footsteps, Bassett began higher education in an RN program at the Reading Hospital School of Nursing.
[13] Dani S. Bassett became a postdoctoral associate from 2009 to 2011 at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Sage Junior Research Fellow from 2011 to 2013.
[3] Bassett focused on the "small-world" topology of the brain, which refers to networks and the way in which they express dense local clustering and how the presence of connections leads to a short path of communication between distant nodes.
Bassett's research team applied mathematical concepts in graph theory to small-world analysis to quantify cortical connectivity.
Bassett applied these concepts to schizophrenic individuals and noticed that the organization of these portions were abnormal with increasing connection distances.
[18] During their undergraduate studies, Bassett was the sole recipient of the Paul Axt Prize, which is given to a student who demonstrates commitment to inquiry and fosters intellectual curiosity.
Bassett received the Alumni Achievement Award from the Schreyer Honors College at Pennsylvania State University for extraordinary accomplishment under 35 years of age.