Steven J. Schiff joins Penn State as Professor of Neurosurgery in the College of Medicine (Milton Hershey Medical Center) and Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and Brush Chair Professor of Engineering.

Dr. Schiff’s research interests focus on understanding pathological dynamics in the brain in terms of the underlying physics, and how technology based on this understanding can treat diseases such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and chronic pain.

Prior to joining Penn State, Dr. Schiff was Professor of Neurobiology, Professor of Psychology and Chief of the Neural Dynamics Laboratory at The George Mason University. He is a past attending neurosurgeon, Associate Director of the Center for Neuroscience and Behavioral Medicine, and co-director of the Epilepsy Surgery Program at the Children’s Research Institute. Dr. Schiff is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He is listed in the Guide to America’s Top Physicians, serves as the Divisional Associate Editor (Biological Physics) for Physical Review Letters, as an Advisory Editor for the Elsevier Book Series “Nonlinear Science and Complexity” and on the Editorial Board of Physical Review E, is an eminent scholar in the State of Virginia, and has recently organized symposia for the American Epilepsy Society and the Industrial and Applied Mathematics Dynamical Systems Conferences. He holds five patents and is a highly sought speaker.

Dr. Schiff, along with Dr. Bruce J. Gluckman who is also joining Penn State, will be responsible for developing research, education and service collaboration among the Departments of Neurosurgery and Engineering Science and Mechanics, The Colleges of Engineering and Medicine, the Materials Research Institute and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. Dr. Schiff holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Physiology; Duke University Medical Center, and an M.D. from Duke University School of Medicine.