__NOTOC__ John Philip Donoghue (born 1949) is an American

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, Biological neural network, neural circuits, and glia, and their Behavior, behavioral, biological, and psycholo ...

; he is currently the Henry Merritt Wriston Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Engineering at

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, where he has taught since 1984. Donoghue founded Brown's Carney Institute for Brain Science and directed the institute from 2008 to 2015. He later served as the founding director of the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering at Campus Biotech in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, Switzerland. Donoghue is best known for his work developing BrainGate and is recognized as a pioneer in

neuroprosthetics Neuroprosthetics (also called neural prosthetics) is a discipline related to neuroscience and biomedical engineering concerned with developing neural prostheses. They are sometimes contrasted with a brain–computer interface, which connects the ...

and

brain–computer interface A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a brain–machine interface (BMI), is a direct communication link between the brain's electrical activity and an external device, most commonly a computer or robotic limb. BCIs are often dire ...

Early life and education

John P. Donoghue was born in 1949 in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

in 1971, a master's degree in anatomy from the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...

in 1976, and a PhD from Brown University in 1979. Donoghue's doctoral dissertation was entitled ''Thalamic projections to the somatic sensory-motor cortex''.

Professional career

Donoghue is a founder of the discipline of

and coordinated the team that developed the

' BrainGate' to restore movement for people with paralysis."John P. Donoghue is taking the Lead of the Wyss Center"
EPFL News, July 11, 2014 (press release). He was a co-founder of an early neurotechnology startup company,

Cyberkinetics Cyberkinetics is an American company with roots tied to the University of Utah. It was co-founded by John Donoghue, Mijail Serruya, Gerhard Friehs of Brown University, and Nicho Hatsopoulos of the University of Chicago The University o ...

. Beginning in 1999, Donoghue served as the inaugural director of Brown's Brain Science Program. The program grew into the Brown Institute for Brain Science, which was renamed the Carney Institute for Brain Science in 2019. Since 2001, Donoghue has held the Henry Merritt Wriston chair at Brown. He conducts research at the Providence VA Medical Center.David Orenstein
"BrainGate team wins $1M prize in Israel"
Brown University, October 15, 2013 (press release). In November 2014 he was appointed the first director of the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Geneva, in association with which he was appointed to an adjunct professorship at the

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (, EPFL) is a public university, public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 1969 with the mission to "train talented engineers in Switzerland". Like its sister institution E ...

and a visiting professorship at the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

. He served a five-year term in the position and was succeeded by Mary Tolikas in June 2019.

Recognition

Donoghue has received several honors for the BrainGate neurotechnology: the in 2007, a Roche-Nature Medicine senior award in 2010, and with Arto Nurmikko the inaugural Moshe Mirilashvili Memorial Fund B.R.A.I.N. (Breakthrough Research And Innovation in Neurotechnology) Prize in 2013. In addition in 2012 with Patrick van der Smagt he won the Erwin Schrödinger Prize of the

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres () is the largest scientific organisation in Germany. It is a union of 18 scientific-technical and biological-medical research centers. The official mission of the Association is "solving the g ...

for a thought-controlled robotic arm developed by BrainGate. He is a fellow of several academies including the US Institute of Medicine, the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

, and the

National Academy of Inventors The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) is a US non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging inventors in academia, following the model of the National Academies of the United States. It was founded at the University of South Florida in 201 ...

. He was also a member of the National Institutes of Health advisory committee for the White House BRAIN Initiative instituted under President Obama.Maia Szalavitz
"Brain Map: President Obama Proposes First Detailed Guide of Human Brain Function"
''Time'', February 19, 2013.

References

External links

John P. Donoghue
at Brown University {{DEFAULTSORT:Donoghue, John Living people American neuroscientists Brown University faculty Brown University alumni Boston University College of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Vermont alumni 1949 births Members of the National Academy of Medicine