Sridevi Sarma (born 1972) is an American

biomedical Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

known for her work in applying

control theory Control theory is a field of mathematics that deals with the control of dynamical systems in engineered processes and machines. The objective is to develop a model or algorithm governing the application of system inputs to drive the system to a ...

to improve therapies for neurological disorders such as

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

and

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

. She is vice dean for graduate education of the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering, associate director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Computational Medicine, and an associate professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Early life and education

Sarma did her undergraduate studies at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

where she received a BS in Electrical Engineering in 1994. She received her SM and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 1997 and 2006. From 2000 to 2003 she took a leave of absence to start a data analytics company. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Science from 2006 to 2009.

Work

Sarma joined the Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering as a professor in 2009. She was appointed as associate director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Computational Medicine in 2017, and vice dean of graduate education for the JHU Whiting School of Engineering in 2019. She is best known for her research combining learning theory and control systems with neuroscience to create translational work aimed at improving therapies for neurological disorders, including

(PD) and

. Sarma has conducted research using control theoretic tools that provided an explanation of how deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy works for PD. Sarma has participated in the

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

TV series,

Brain Games ''Brain Games'' is a collection of memory video games programmed by Larry Kaplan and released by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600 in 1978. It is a group of memory games, in which the player is faced with outwitting the computer in sound and pictur ...

Awards and honors

* L'Oreal For Women in Science fellow (2008) *

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

CAREER Award (2011) * Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2012) *

North American Neuromodulation Society North American Neuromodulation Society is a professional scientific organization that serves to promote and advance neuromodulation as a treatment for various diseases. The majority of its members work in pain-related disciplines, although member ...

Krishna Kumar New Investigator Award (2014) * Whiting School of Engineering Robert B. Pond Excellence in Teaching Award (2015) * GE Faculty for the Future Research Fellowship * Burroughs Wellcome Fund Careers at the Scientific Interface Award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarma, Sri Living people 1972 births Johns Hopkins University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology people Cornell University alumni Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering faculty