Bioengineer Honored for Neurotechnology Research

January 6, 2017

Dr. Joseph Pancrazio, associate provost and bioengineering professor at UT Dallas, has been named Neurotechnology Researcher of the Year for 2016 by the industry newsletter Neurotech Reports.

Neurotech Reports editor James Cavuoto said the organization looked at Pancrazio’s academic and research accomplishments, and his impact on the development and maturation of the neurotechnology industry. Neurotechnology is used to understand and influence the brain and nervous system for the purposes of improving health, education and information technology.

“Throughout his career in academia and in government, Joe Pancrazio has demonstrated a keen understanding of the technological, translational and regulatory issues involved with developing new therapies for neurological disorders,” Cavuoto said. “As a researcher, program director and administrator, he has helped usher in a new generation of neural interfaces, identifying new materials and neural circuits that will prove to be critical in future neurotech devices and therapies.”

Pancrazio’s research in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science focuses on the development and demonstration of novel neural interface technology for both in vitro and in vivo applications. His laboratory leverages advances in material science and microscale fabrication to create new devices capable of neural stimulation and recording.

Pancrazio earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana, and his master’s and doctoral degrees in biomedical engineering from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

Pancrazio served on the faculty at the University of Virginia and Georgetown University before taking on roles at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the NIH. In October 2009, he joined the faculty at George Mason University as professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the new bioengineering program. He served as the founding chair of the Department of Bioengineering at Mason from 2011 to 2015. In 2011, Dr. Pancrazio was elected to the College of Fellows in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, a distinction reserved for the top two percent of the field. Since 2012, he has served as the Chair of the Steering Committee for Neural Interfaces Conference, an international meeting central to the neurotechnology field. Pancrazio joined UT Dallas in 2015.