| Biography
Ed Boyden leads the Media Lab's Neuroengineering and Neuromedia group, which is inventing and applying tools for the analysis and engineering of brain circuits, with the goal of developing new strategies for systematically repairing pathology, augmenting cognition, and revealing insights into the human condition. He is integrating nanotechnological, molecular, optical, and other technologies into interfaces for the precise control of neural circuit dynamics and function. Recently, he and his colleagues created a genetically targeted way to activate neurons with millisecond-timescale pulses of light, an innovation that has been widely adopted in neuroscience and neuroengineering, and resulted in his being named one of the "Top 35 Innovators Under the Age of 35" by Technology Review.
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. He received an MEng in electrical engineering, and BS degrees in physics and electrical engineering, all from MIT. These pursuits, as well as an independent career as an inventor, have earned him many invited talks, awards, papers, and pending patents.
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