Dr Rao attended the University of California (UC) Berkeley for undergraduate studies in Neurobiology before earning his M.D. and PhD in Biomedical Sciences from UC San Francisco. He completed a Neurology residency at the Brigham & Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals in Boston, serving as Chief Resident in his final year. He returned to UC San Francisco for fellowship training in epilepsy and joined the faculty in 2014. He is an Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology, Ernest Gallo Distinguished Professor, and Chief of the Epilepsy Division in the Department of Neurology. His clinical and research interests involve applications of neurostimulation devices for drug-resistant epilepsy, neuropsychiatric disorders, and seizure forecasting.