Sami El-Boustani obtained a Master's degree in theoretical physics from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2005. After obtaining a second Master's degree in cognitive science at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris in 2006, he undertook a PhD in neuroscience at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France). He obtained his PhD from Sorbonne University in 2011. Between 2011 and 2015, he spent his first post-doctoral period in the United States, at the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There, he carried out research on the functions of interneurons in the primary visual cortex and on the mechanisms of plasticity in vivo. On his return to Switzerland, he continued his post-doctoral work in the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL, where he focused on the circuits in the mouse brain that underlie decision-making based on tactile perception. As recipient of an SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship, he was appointed assistant professor in the Department of Basic Neuroscience at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine in 2019, then associate professor in September 2025. His research aims to elucidate the neural basis of decision-making cognition in mice.