Edward Chang (Joan and Sanford Weill Chair and Jeanne Robertson Distinguished Professor of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco)  

In this talk, I will present recent technological BCI advances to restore speech for people with severe paralysis and who have lost the ability to communicate.

Dr. Chang’s clinical expertise is surgical therapies for epilepsy, pain, and brain tumors. He specializes in advanced neurophysiologic brain mapping methods, including awake speech and motor mapping, to safely perform neurosurgical procedures in eloquent areas of the brain. 

His research focuses on the discovery of cortical mechanisms of high-order neurological function in humans.  Dr. Chang’s laboratory has demonstrated the detailed functional organization of the human speech cortex and has translated those discoveries towards the development of a speech neuroprosthetic device to restore communication for people living with paralysis.  

Dr. Chang is recipient of the 2015 Blavatnik National Laureate in Life Sciences, The Winn Prize of the Society of Neurological Surgeons, and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.