Friday, March 14, 2025
11:00am–1:00pm ET
Effective dialogue between neuroethics and neurotechnology development is crucial for fostering a culture of responsible innovation. Partnerships between industry and academia in neurotechnology research are essential to overcome the resource and expertise gaps that each sector faces individually. This webinar brings together experts from both communities to explore questions of effective communication and collaboration.
Speakers
- Cesar Echavarria – Senior Machine Learning Research Engineer, Synchron
- Jennifer French – Executive Director & Founder, Neurotech Network
- Winston Chiong – Professor of Neurology, UCSF
- Tristan McIntosh – Assistant Professor of Medicine, Washington University
- Jack Judy – Professor of Nanotechnology, University of Florida
Join us for a thought-provoking discussion hosted by the INS Neural Interfaces Affinity Group and Public Communication and Publishing Affinity Group.
Promote
Speakers
Winston Chiong
Dr. Winston Chiong is a Professor in the UCSF Department of Neurology Memory and Aging Center, principal investigator of the UCSF Decision Lab (https://decisionlab.ucsf.edu), Director of UCSF Bioethics (https://bioethics.ucsf.edu), and Mary Oakley Professor of Neuroethics at UCSF. His clinical practice focuses on Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and other cognitive disorders of aging. His research has two main themes: (1) the neural bases of decision-making in the aging brain, focusing on how brain systems involved in financial and medical decisions are influenced by health and disease; and (2) the ethical, policy and health equity implications of alterations to brain function, informed by the experiences of patients with brain diseases and those undergoing new brain-based therapies.
He is a member of the UCSF Medical Center Ethics Committee, the Neuroethics Working Group of the National Institutes of Health BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Multi-Council Working Group, the American Academy of Neurology’s Ethics, Law and Humanities Committee, and the Board of Directors of the International Neuroethics Society. He is a study section member for the NIH Center for Scientific Review, and is a research mentor in the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Career Development Program for Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers (MOSAIC) Scholars (K99/R00) from diverse backgrounds.
His work is informed by his interdisciplinary training in clinical medicine, philosophy and cognitive neuroscience. He received his PhD degree in philosophy from New York University and his MD degree from UCSF. He completed an internship in internal medicine at Stanford University and a residency in neurology at UCSF. He then underwent postdoctoral research training in cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging at UC Berkeley and clinical training in dementia at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center.
Cesar Echavarria
Synchron
Cesar Echavarria is a Machine Learning Engineer at Synchron, where he develops brain-computer interface (BCI) technology for medical applications. He holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University and a B.Sc. from MIT, bridging neuroscience research with AI-driven technology development. At Synchron, he designs and optimizes machine learning models that interpret physiological signals, advancing robust BCI systems that empower patients with neurological conditions.
Jennifer French, MBA
She is the Founder and Executive Director of Neurotech Network, a nonprofit organization that focuses on education and advocacy of neurotechnologies. French has helped launch successful divisions is such organizations as Bombardier Capital and Connection, as well as several nonprofit organizations and community/patient engagement programs. She serves on several Boards including the IEEE Neuroethics Initiative, Institute of Neuroethics, OpenMinds, BRAIN Initiative MCWG & NEWG, and the American Brain Coalition. She is also a faculty member for the NeuroTech Course. Together with Drs. Hochberg & Lennerz, Jennifer recently launched the Implantable BCI Collaborative Community (iBCI-CC), a multi-stakeholder forum dedicated to advancing regulatory science in iBCIs.
As a result of a snowboarding accident, Jennifer French lives with tetraplegia due to a spinal cord injury. She is an early user of an experimental implanted neural prosthesis for paralysis and is the Past-President and Founding member of the North American SCI Consortium. French is the current Chair of the CDMRP Spinal Cord Injury Research Program programmatic committee. She is the author of On My Feet Again (Neurotech Press, 2013) and is co-author of Bionic Pioneers (Neurotech Press, 2014).
Jen is also an avid sailor. She is a silver medalist from the 2012 Paralympic Games and is the 2012 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year; the first woman with a disability to receive this distinction. She is the 2024 recipient of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation Visionary Prize and the recipient of the Brooke Ellison Community Visionary Award.
Her latest TED talk is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkspAQW_2sQ
Jack Judy
Dr. Judy received his B.S.E.E. degree with summa cum laude honors from the University of Minnesota in 1989, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1994 and 1996. Dr. Jack Judy joined ECE as the Intel Nanotechnology Endowed Chair/NIMET Director. Dr. Judy was formerly a program manager in the Microsystems Technology Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He was serving in this capacity while on leave from his faculty position in the ECE Department at UCLA. While at UCLA, he served as Director of the NeuroEngineering Program, the Nanoelectronics Research Facility, and the Microfabrication Laboratory. Dr. Judy has received the prestigious National Science Foundation Career Award and the Okawa Foundation Award.
Dr. Judy’s research interest include the development of novel micro/nanoscale systems and their use in a wide variety of engineering and biomedical applications.
Tristan McIntosh
Tristan McIntosh is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Bioethics Research Center at Washington University School of Medicine in the Division of General Medical Sciences. Dr. McIntosh earned her Master’s and PhD in Industrial-Organizational Psychology with a minor in Quantitative Psychology at the University of Oklahoma, where she specialized in ethical decision-making, innovation, and leadership. Currently, Dr. McIntosh leads federally-funded and foundation-funded research on ethical, professional, and social issues in science and medicine that arise at individual, team, and institutional levels.
Her research spans three primary domains: 1) the responsible conduct of research, including the creation of supportive research environments to support scientific excellence, 2) neuroethics, including responsibly navigating industry-academia partnerships in the development and commercialization of brain technologies, and 3) preventing and responding to egregious wrongdoing by physicians, with special emphasis on the role of state medical boards. Dr. McIntosh also has expertise in designing, delivering, and assessing educational programming on the aforementioned topics. She is the co-director of Compass, a leadership and management training and mentoring program for early-career researchers, and serves on the editorial boards of Accountability in Research and Ethics & Behavior.