The Keynote Speaker of the MICCAI 2014 DTIChallenge is Hugues Duffau, M.D., Ph.D.,  Professor and Chairman of the Neurosurgery Department in the Montpellier University Medical Hospital and Head of the INSERM 1051 Team “Plasticity of the central nervous system, human stem cells and glial tumors” at the Institute for Neurosciences of Montpellier (France). Professor Duffau is the world leader in the wide-awake cognitive neurosurgery of slow-growing brain tumors, a routine which he has developed since twenty years. During this type of surgery, the patient is awake and collaborates actively with the neurosurgeon, while a direct functional mapping of the patient’s brain is systematically performed using electrical stimulation, to prevent resections of critical and eloquent areas. Thus, his approach can be also considered as an alternative brain functional imaging based on awake responses to electrical stimulation of cortex areas and networked structures. His fundamental approach is centered on the concepts of the hodotopic brain and neuroplasticity, breaking with the traditional localizationist view of cerebral processing. For his innovative work in neurosurgery and neurosciences, he was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa several times, and he was the youngest recipient of the prestigious Herbert Olivecrona Award from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. He has written four textbooks and over 265 publications in international journals ranging from neurosurgery to fundamental neurosciences, including cognitive sciences and brain plasticity for a total of more than 13,000 citations.