Eberhard Fetz, WaNPRC core staff scientist and UW professor of physiology and biophysics, received the first Aspen Brain Forum Prize in Neurotechnology. The prize was awarded to Fetz for “work that has broad application and impact in translating basic research into effective therapeutics within the area of neural prosthetics.”
Fetz is widely considered a pioneer in the field of neural interfaces. He and his colleagues have recently advanced the field by developing a novel autonomous recurrent brain-computer interface. The battery-powered “neurochip” creates artificial connections that the brain can learn to incorporate into normal behavior. This new technology could be used to bridge lost connections that result from damage to the nervous system, such as stroke or spinal cord injury.
The Forum is a joint effort of the The Aspen Brain Forum Foundation, a “high-level think tank” that hosts an annual meeting on cutting-edge topics in neuroscience to advance global collaboration and scientific breakthroughs, and the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS).
For more information, read the NYAS news release.