Edward S. Boyden, Ph.D.

Ed Boyden is Benesse Career Development Professor at the MIT Media Lab and Assistant Professor of Biological Engineering and of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, where he invents and applies tools for the analysis and engineering of brain circuits, with the goal of developing new strategies for systematically repairing pathology and augmenting cognition. His lab is working on strategies to repair the neural computations corrupted in disease states such as Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and schizophrenia. For developing optical methods of activating and silencing specific kinds of neuron, he was named one of the "Top 35 Innovators Under the Age of 35" by Technology Review, as well as the recipient of the first Research Award for Innovation in Neuroscience by the Society for Neuroscience, and the NIH Director's New Innovator Award in 2007. Boyden received his PhD in neurosciences from Stanford University as a Hertz Fellow, where he discovered that the molecular mechanisms used to store a memory are determined by the content to be learned. Before, he received three degrees in electrical engineering and physics from MIT.

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