Ed Boyden
Photo courtesy Kent Dayton
- Investigator, McGovern Institute
Assistant Professor, MIT Media Lab; Joint Professor, Dept Brain Cognitive Sciences; Dept Biol Engineering - Boyden lab site
- Publications
- phone: 617-324-3085
- fax: 617-253-6285
- MIT address: E15-473B
- email: esb@media.mit.edu
Meet Ed Boyden
Engineering matter and mind
Ed Boyden develops new strategies for manipulating brain activity. He uses a wide variety of technologies to find new and more potent ways to alter brain function, for both research and therapeutic purposes. A major goal of his current work is to manipulate individual nerve cells using light – a powerful new technology that could open the door to new treatments for conditions such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and mood disorders.
In this talk presented at the 2011 TED conference, Ed Boyden describes a radical new technology for controlling brain activity with light:
Biography
Ed Boyden joined the McGovern Institute for Brain Research in July 2007. In 2006, he joined the MIT Media Lab as a visiting scientist, where he is now an Assistant Professor (jointly with the Department of Biological Engineering). He received a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford University in 2005. He holds a double B.S. in Physics and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT. In 2007, he received a Wallace H. Coulter Early Career Award to develop new approaches for treating epilepsy and Parkinson's disease. Boyden was named one of the world's top 35 innovators under age 35 by Technology Review magazine and one of the “20 Best Brains Under 40” by Discover magazine.
