Andréa de Paiva is the creator of NeuroAU, a member of the Advisory Council of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) and vice chair of the ANFA Chapter Brazil.

She is a Master of Arts (Middlesex University, London) and architect and urban planner  (University of São Paulo) from Brazil. Trying to bridge research, education and design in her work, her research interests involve the interdisciplinary field of cognitive science applied to architecture and urbanism, as well as architectural theory, in order to better understand how the physical environment can affect individuals and society. The main topics of her research include short- and long-term effects of the physical environment; environmental enrichment and brain plasticity; how space affects memorization of experiences; cognitive restoration; and the multi-sensory experience of places.

Andréa is the coordinator of the course Interiors & Neuroscience: design focused on people at IED (Istituto Europeo di Design), and she also has helped to create and coordinate courses of neuroscience applied to business at FGV (Fundação Getulio Vargas) and, at FAAP (Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado), she has created the course Neuroscience Applied to Environments and Creation, which completed its 10th edition in 2022. 

Certified in Design Thinking by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, Andréa is also a consultant on the subject of neuroscience for architecture, having consulted at Athié Wohnrath (one of the most successful architecture offices in Brazil according to Forbes, 2016), where she was involved with projects of schools and workplaces. She was also a consultant at FGV, the best think tank in Latin America according to the Global Go To Think Tanks Index (2020) and is a guest contributor to research on how design affects behavior, developed by DPA Architects in Singapore/London and funded by the Design Singapore Council.