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About

Francesca Marini is a prominent biomedical engineer and neuroscientist whose research sits at the intersection of robotic rehabilitation, proprioception, and sensorimotor neuroscience. Her work has made substantial contributions to understanding how the human nervous system encodes joint position and movement, particularly at the wrist, while simultaneously advancing the clinical application of robotic devices for neurorehabilitation. Marini has been instrumental in characterizing wrist proprioception across multiple dimensions — investigating amplitude versus position coding, anisotropic accuracy, and between-hand symmetry — providing a richer scientific foundation for sensorimotor rehabilitation protocols. Her robot-aided assessment tools have extended these insights into pediatric populations, offering objective methods to evaluate proprioceptive deficits in children with neurodevelopmental disorders, a previously underserved clinical area. Her 2019 review on robotic neurorehabilitation, garnering over 120 citations, stands as a key reference in the field, reflecting her broad perspective on emerging technologies and their clinical promise. With additional highly cited contributions addressing muscle fatigue assessment, adaptive wrist training post-stroke, and post-traumatic wrist evaluation, Marini's body of work — accumulating over 410 citations — demonstrates consistent impact across both fundamental neuroscience and translational rehabilitation engineering, making her a vital voice in modern sensorimotor research.