2026 IEEE Brain Discovery & Neurotechnology Workshop

John Ngai, Ph.D. is the Director of the National Institutes of Health’s Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies®(BRAIN) Initiative. Dr. Ngai earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology from Pomona College, Claremont, California, and Ph.D. in biology from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech and at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons before starting his faculty position at the University of California at Berkeley. Over 27 years as a Berkeley faculty member prior to joining NIH in 2020, Dr. Ngai trained 20 undergraduate students, 24 graduate students and 15 postdoctoral fellows in addition to teaching well over 1,000 students in the classroom. His work has led to publications in the field’s most prestigious journals as well as numerous U.S. and international patents. Dr. Ngai has received many awards including from the Sloan Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, and McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience. As a faculty member, Dr. Ngai served as the director of Berkeley’s Neuroscience Graduate Program, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, and Functional Genomics Laboratory. He also provided extensive service on NIH study sections, councils and steering groups, including as previous co-chair of the NIH BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Consortium Steering Group. Dr. Ngai oversees the long-term strategy and day-to-day operations of the NIH BRAIN Initiative as it strives to revolutionize our understanding of the brain in both health and disease.

Dr. Dan Rizzuto is the Co-Founder, President, and Chief Technology Officer of Nia Therapeutics, where he is building the world’s first personalized neurostimulation system to treat memory loss due to brain injury and degenerative disease. He developed Nia’s core technology at the University of Pennsylvania, demonstrating that personalized neurostimulation can significantly improve human memory performance. Dan earned his doctorate in the neuroscience of human memory at Brandeis University and completed postdoctoral training in brain-machine interfaces at Caltech. He has previously led large-scale neurotechnology development at Northstar Neuroscience, the Swedish Neuroscience Institute, and the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

Distinguished Professor Ranu Jung is a trailblazing figure in neural engineering and visionary builder who cherishes challenges. She arrived in Northwest Arkansas to lay the foundation for the Institute for Integrative and innovative Research (I³R) by shaping its vision and mission, creating collaborative spaces, and fostering community and industry partnerships. Jung is driven by a deep sense of purpose to make a positive societal impact. From the first neuromorphic chip successfully connected to the spinal cord of a lamprey – to the first wireless, implantable, intrafascicular neural-interface system for restoring sensations to individuals with upper limb amputation, her teams have pioneered neurotechnology to bridge the gap between scientific discovery and clinical application. Jung holds a PhD and MS in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, a Bachelor’s with Distinction in Electronics & Communication Engineering from NIT Warangal, India, and an Honorary Doctorate from Aalborg University, Denmark.

Viktor Jirsa is Director of the Inserm Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes at Aix-Marseille-Université in Marseille, France. Dr. Jirsa received his PhD in 1996 in Theoretical Physics and has since then contributed to the field of Theoretical Neuroscience through the development of large-scale brain network models based on realistic connectivity. His work has been foundational for network science in brain medicine and the use of personalized virtual brain models in clinical applications. He is Scientific Director of the clinical trial EPINOV, evaluating the use of virtual brain technology in epilepsy surgery. Dr. Jirsa serves as Chief Science Officer of the European digital neuroscience infrastructure EBRAINS (https://ebrains.eu) and Coordinator of the Virtual Brain Twin consortium (https://www.virtualbraintwin.eu/). He has been awarded several international prizes for his research including the first HBP Innovation prize (2021) and has published more than 200 scientific articles.

Mark Schnitzer is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and Anne T. & Robert M. Bass Professor in the Stanford Departments of Applied Physics, Biology, and Neurosurgery. After receiving a physics Ph.D. from Princeton, he started his research group in 1999 at Bell Laboratories, where he pioneered the use of micro-optics for fluorescence imaging at cellular resolution in live mammals. Schnitzer joined the Stanford faculty in 2003 and HHMI in 2008. His laboratory invents optical technologies to image brain activity at cellular resolution and uses these innovations to study neural circuit dynamics. Key inventions include tiny microscopes small enough to be mounted on the head of a freely behaving mouse. This technology won The Scientist’s Top Innovation of 2013 and 2019 Method of the Year from Nature Methods. Schnitzer has made notable service contributions and was a co-author of the BRAIN 2025 report, blueprint for the NIH BRAIN Initiative, and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences 2022 Decadal Survey of Biological Physics. Schnitzer is a recipient of a Vannevar Bush Fellowship, the highest award from the U.S. Dept. of Defense for basic research. His past trainees include 26 professors or group leaders now leading their own labs.

Hong Chen, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Neurosurgery at Washington University in St. Louis. She leads the Chen Ultrasound Lab, where her research focuses on developing ultrasound technologies for noninvasive brain access, diagnosis, and therapy. Dr. Chen is a recipient of the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award and the Provost’s Research Excellence Award at Washington University. She is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the Acoustical Society of America, and a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors.

Jan Kubanek is an Associate Professor at Washington University School of Medicine. His lab has developed systems for controlled delivery of ultrasound into the brain of non-human primates and humans. The technology has been applied in clinical studies to target deep brain regions involved in chronic pain, depression, opioid addiction, and essential tremor. He is also a co-founder of SPIRE Therapeutics Inc., which aims to scale the technology for the benefit of researchers, clinicians, and patients.

Frances Chance received her MS and PhD from Brandeis University, and her BS from the California Institute of Technology. She is currently a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff in the Center for Computing Research at Sandia National Laboratories. Her research applies knowledge of biological nervous systems and neural circuit operations to develop and constrain novel neural-informed algorithms and brain-based technologies.

Dr. Jingyu Liu received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from University of New Mexico, USA, in 2004, and Postdoctoral training at Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Hartford, CT. She is currently Associate Professor at Computer Science, Neuroscience, and the TReNDS center, Georgia State University. Dr. Liu’s research focuses on identifying genetic and epigenetic influences on, or associations with, brain anomalies linked to mental illness, as well as on elucidating mechanisms underlying normal brain development. Brain based phenotypes are derived from MRI, EEG, and MEG, while molecular features include single nucleotide polymorphisms, copy number variation, DNA methylation, and gene expression profiles. Her work involves developing advanced computational methods to uncover latent relationships between brain endophenotypes, molecular and cellular genetic and epigenetic features, and environmental and behavioral assessments.