Caroline Rae is a biochemist with a background in magnetic resonance and interdisciplinary brain research. She is a graduate of The University of Sydney, from where she has a PhD in metabolic biochemistry and magnetic resonance. She then held an Oxford Nuffield Medical Fellowship at the MRC Biochemical and Clinical Magnetic Resonance Unit in Oxford, UK where she made her first foray into interdisciplinary brain research in disorders as diverse as dyslexia, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Williams syndrome. She continued in brain research on her 1997 return to Australia.
In 2005 she was appointed to UNSW as NewSouth Global Professor of Brain Sciences; a cross-faculty position which reflected her interests in combining different research approaches to study the brain. She is now Professor of Brain Sciences and an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow.