Dr Claude J. Bajada is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, at the University of Malta. He leads the Boundaries of the Brain (BOB) Lab, where his research focuses on human brain organisation, neuroimaging, and the development of computational approaches for studying brain structure and function.
His work spans several related areas, including the anatomy and organisation of cerebral white matter, structural and functional brain connectivity, computational neuroimaging, and the development of novel methods for investigating the human connectome. He also has an interest in the history and conceptual development of neuroanatomy, particularly the description and classification of white-matter pathways.
More broadly, his research increasingly focuses on the methodological and infrastructural challenges associated with modern biomedical imaging. This includes the development of neuroimaging tools and analysis pipelines, research data infrastructure, open and reproducible science, and approaches for making complex biomedical data more accessible and useful for research.
Dr Bajada graduated in Medicine from the University of Malta in 2010 and subsequently completed his foundation training at Mater Dei Hospital. He then obtained an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience with Distinction from University College London. During his MSc, he investigated the structural connectivity of the inferior frontal gyrus with the inferior parietal lobule and anterior temporal lobe, regions involved in the phonological and semantic processing of language.
He completed his PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at The University of Manchester, where he developed mathematical and neuroimaging approaches to investigate the connective anatomy of the human temporal lobe.
Before returning to Malta, Dr Bajada worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany. His current work at the University of Malta combines neuroscience, medical imaging, computational methods, and research infrastructure, with a particular emphasis on understanding how patterns of brain organisation can be measured, modelled, and translated into useful research and clinical tools.
