Emery N. Brown, the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Health Sciences and Technology in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, received the 2022 Pierre M. Galletti Award from the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the institute.
Dr. Brown is also an anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Warren M. Zapol Professor at Harvard Medical School. He is renowned for the development of statistical methods and signal-processing algorithms to enable and improve analysis of neural activity measurements. The work has had numerous applications including studies of learning and memory, brain-computer interfaces, and systems neuroscience. He has also pioneered investigations of how general anesthetic drugs work in the brain to induce and maintain simultaneous but reversible states of unconsciousness, amnesia, immobility, and analgesia.
The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering said Dr. Brown earned the award in recognition of his “significant contributions to neuroscience data analysis and for characterizing the neurophysiology of anesthesia-induced unconsciousness and demonstrating how it can be reliably monitored in real time using electroencephalogram recordings.”
“I am extremely honored and grateful to the AIMBE for choosing me to receive the 2022 Galletti Award in recognition of my research deciphering the neuroscience of how anesthetics work,” Dr. Brown said. “I would like to express my gratitude to my collaborators, post-doctoral fellows, students, research assistants, and clinical coordinators who have made this possible.”
Dr. Brown’s outstanding achievements have earned him the distinction of being the first African American, to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Brown received his bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from Harvard University. He holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. both in statistics and a medical degree from Harvard University.
