Eric C. Leuthardt
Eric Leuthardt was born in Boston in May of 1973. After a few year stint in Stuttgart Germany as a toddler, Leuthardt spent his youth in the Midwestern city of Cincinnati. After many years of taking apart every electrical appliance in the house, catching snakes and crawdads in the nearby creeks, and doing his best to endure the Catholic grade school system, he finally found his calling in a laboratory at the University of Cincinnati. There he spent his summers and most of his free time working on how electric and magnetic fields influence the growth of neurons. He would also frequent the operating rooms early in the morning to watch some of the neurosurgeons remove brain tumors. After a time, while working under a microscope, one of the surgeons working in the lab told him he should think about neurosurgery.
The idea took hold (in a big way). Leuthardt went on to Saint Louis University to enroll in a premedical track where he earned degrees in Biology and Theology and then subsequently matriculated to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. After having earned his medical degree, he was accepted into the prestigious neurosurgery program at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes Jewish Medical Hospital. During his training he also took time off to pursue a post-doctoral fellowship in biomedical engineering where he and his mentor developed one of the fundamental platforms used for brain-computer interfacing – technologies that enable people to control machines with their thoughts alone.
Since that time, his research has focused on neuroprosthetic devices that link to the brain to restore function to patients with motor disabilities. His work in the field has yielded him numerous accolades as a scientist, a neurosurgeon, and an inventor. In 2004, for his work “A Brain-Computer Interface Using Electrocorticographic Signals in Humans” he was awarded the James O’Leary Prize for Outstanding Neuroscience Research at Washington University in St Louis. In 2007, the Academy of Science in St Louis awarded him the Innovator Award for his research and translation efforts. He was given one of the highest acknowledgments in his field by being presented with the Annual Award of the American Academy of Neurological Surgery in Berlin, Germany. On a national level, he was named one of the Top Young Innovators by MIT’s magazine Technology Review. The magazine names individuals under the age of 35 each year whose work in technology has global impact. In addition to numerous peer reviewed publications, Leuthardt has over a 1000 issued or pending patents on file with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and has founded several companies. Leuthardt is currently an associate professor with the Departments of Neurological Surgery, Neurobiology, Biomedical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. He is also the Director of the Center for Innovation in Neuroscience and Technology, an institute that is creating advanced next generation medical technologies.
When not juggling his frenetic schedule, Leuthardt spends his time playing with his daughter and son, Ellie and Hunter.
