Ivanka Savic Berglund

Ivanka Savic Berglund is a tenured Professor of Neurology at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and an Adjunct Professor of Neurology at UCLA. Her research focuses on brain imaging, cerebral gender differences, epilepsy, occupational stress, and neurobiology of gender identity and sexual orientation. She pioneered Flumazenil PET as a marker for epileptogenic regions and discovered brain responses to pheromones, mapping human olfactory systems. Her recent work explores functional neurologic disorders, chronic stress effects on the brain, and self-perception mechanisms.

Her scientific contributions span three decades, with high-impact publications in journals like PNAS and Cerebral Cortex. Research areas include:

• Neurobiology of gender identity and dysphoria
• Brain imaging in occupational stress and burnout
• Sexual orientation and cerebral connectivity
• Epilepsy pathophysiology and treatment
• Olfactory and pheromone system mapping

Scientific awards include:

• Young researcher prize in Clinical Neurophysiology (1989)
• Edit Follin’s prize in Neurology in Sweden (2000)
• Elite Research Leader at Karolinska Institute (2004-2010)
• Selected as one of Europe’s most successful female scientists (2017)
• Scientific American’s 50 most prominent publications (all sciences)

She collaborates with teams at Karolinska University Hospital, UCLA, and initiatives like the Stockholm Brain Institute. Her work has been featured in major media outlets such as CNN and New York Times.