Ruth Defrin is a Full Professor at the Dept. of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel-Aviv University (TAU). Prof. Defrin completed her Bachelor degree in Physical Therapy, MSc and PhD in Neurophysiology at TAU and postdoc at the University of Toronto. She is the co-founder and chair of the TAU and affiliated hospitals Pain Research Forum, and research officer of the Israeli Pain Association. She is a member of an EU COST-action on pain assessment in people with impaired cognition, aimed to search pain indicators among non-communicative individuals, and a member of the steering committee of the Special Interest Group “Pain in intellectual and developmental disabilities” (PIDDSIG). Her main research interests include: mechanisms of neuropathic pain, the interaction of pain and stress, and pain perception of individuals with intellectual disability. Prof. Defrin has published over 100 research papers and several book chapters on these topics.