Dr. Emery N. Brown stands as a preeminent interdisciplinary scientist whose work bridges neuroscience, statistics, and clinical medicine. He currently holds the distinguished Edward Hood Taplin Professorship of Medical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience at MIT while simultaneously serving as the Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, where he maintains an active clinical practice at Massachusetts General Hospital. A Harvard College graduate (1978) who earned both his MD (1987) and PhD in Statistics (1988) from Harvard institutions, Dr. Brown completed his internship in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and his anesthesiology residency at MGH. His unique dual expertise as both a physician and statistician positioned him to pioneer an entirely new scientific approach to understanding the neurophysiological mechanisms of general anesthesia.
Dr. Brown's groundbreaking research has fundamentally transformed our understanding of how anesthetic agents affect neural circuits and produce the distinct states of general anesthesia. His innovative development of statistical methods and signal processing algorithms for neural data analysis has provided unprecedented insights into brain dynamics during anesthesia, revealing these states represent targeted neurophysiological phenomena rather than simple unconsciousness. His work has established the foundation for precise monitoring of brain states during surgery, directly improving patient safety and clinical outcomes worldwide. The profound impact of his contributions is evidenced by his receipt of the Swartz Prize for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience and the Gruber Prize in Neuroscience, among other prestigious honors.
As one of only 25 scientists—and the first African American, statistician, and anesthesiologist—to achieve membership in all three US National Academies (Medicine, Sciences, and Engineering), Dr. Brown represents a pinnacle of interdisciplinary scientific achievement. His mentorship has cultivated more than 40 postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates who now contribute significantly to neuroscience and medical research globally. Currently leading the development of a new joint research center between Massachusetts institutions, Dr. Brown continues to pioneer investigations into brain states with implications extending beyond anesthesia to coma recovery and disorders of consciousness. His ongoing research promises to further revolutionize clinical practice while deepening our fundamental understanding of consciousness itself.
