Steven J. Schiff
Steven J. Schiff, MD, PhD
Director, Penn State Center for Neural Engineering
Brush Chair Professor of Engineering
Professor of Neurosurgery
Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics
Professor of Physics (Courtesy Appointment)
W311 Millennium Science Complex
Pollock Road
University Park, PA 16802-2131
(814) 865-2481 Shari Walczak (Center Administration) slw2 at engr.psu.edu
(814) 863-4210 Office
(815) 550-2150 Fax
Send E-Mail sschiff at psu.edu
http://www.esm.psu.edu/schiff
Google Scholar Citations
My book is out in 2012: Neural Control Engineering, The MIT Press
Physics Today Book Review December 2012 by Jack Cowan
Amazon Reviews
Amazon
Amazon Kindle Edition
MIT Press
MIT Press eBook
A Matlab Book:The Mathworks
Google Books Preview
Errata
Lecture Slides
Code Archive
House Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights hearings August 2, 2011
Congressional Hearing Book with Testimony on Hydrocephalus
CSPAN Coverage of Hydrocephalus Hearings August 2, 2011
See 2013 article at United Nations Earth News UNEarthNews 
See 2013 article and radio piece at Voice of America 
See 2012 article in (Spanish or Catalan) “Nuestro cerebro también piensa sin palabras”La Vanguardia
See Spring 2010 article in Penn State Research Magazine
See Fall 2010 article in Engineering Penn State Magazine
See June 2008 article at Technology Review
Recent covers:
article
article
article
Research Interests:
I am a Pediatric Neurosurgeon, with particular interests in understanding the physics of dynamical disease of the nervous system, developing smart prosthetics to treat those diseases, and an interest in global health.
Dynamical Diseases are where the predominant symptomatology manifests as disordered interaction between the elements of the organ in question. My focus is on the nervous system, and grew out of my experience in treating Epilepsy as well as the Spasticity of Cerebral Palsy. Our best surgical treatment offerings for such diseases involves destructive resection, and my goals for many years have centered around the science and engineering of alternatives to such therapies.
Finding better treatments to such dynamical disease requires that we understand the underlying physical principles that govern the normal, and disordered, interactions between elements of the nervous system. I have spent considerable time focusing on the cellular interactions that make up pattern formation in seizures, Parkinson’s disease, and the origin of migraines (spreading depression). I am also deeply involved in learning how to use electrical stimulation to alter such interactions, so that we can design intelligent control algorithms. In human EEG, I have done fundamental work on the signal processing of seizures, discrimination analysis, real time modulation of stimulation based on EEG, and robotic brain-machine interfaces for assistive devices.
An area of special focus of mine is in developing the interdisciplinary fusion of Neural Control Engineering. I recently wrote a book, published by the MIT Press, exploring this intersection between control engineering and dynamical disease of the brain in much detail.
Lastly, with support from a Grace Woodward Grant for Collaborative Research in Engineering and Medicine, and a Clinical Translational Science Institute award, I have begun a number of projects to work on improving the diagnosis and treatment of neurosurgical diseases in East Africa. Improving medical care with the constraints of limited resources, through better engineering and image analysis, is a goal that is of broad utility in both the developing and industrialized countries. Furthermore, the under-recognized impact of infectious diseases on creating diseases of the nervous system that we have treated neurosurgically, such as hydrocephalus and epilepsy, is one that I am devoting increasing effort to.
Penn State Center for Neural Engineering
The new Penn State Center for Neural Engineering, an intercollege center bridging the Colleges of Engineering, Medicine and Science, was Chartered in June, 2007. With Professor Bruce J. Gluckman as the Associate Director, the Center occupies 22,000 square feet of space in the new Life Sciences II Building, a structure which brings together faculty and laboratories from Materials Science and Life Sciences at Penn State.
With the help of a P30 Research Core Center Grant from NIH in 2009-2010, “Innovations at the Intersection of Neural Engineering, Materials Sci & Medicine”, we have continued to grow and recruit outstanding faculty to the Center. Our present complement in the new facility includes:
- Steven J. Schiff Director
- Bruce J. Gluckman Associate Director
- Robert E. Harbaugh Director, Penn State Institute of the Neurosciences, University Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Neurosurgery
- Judith A. Todd Department Head, P. B. Breneman Chair and Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics
- Corina Drapaca, Assistant Professor, Engineering Science and Mechanics
- Kevin Alloway, Professor, Neural & Behavioral Science
- Francesco Costanzo, Professor, Engineering Science and Mechanics
- Sean Brennan, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
- Dezhe Jin, Assistant Professor, Physics
- Patrick Drew, Assistant Professor, Engineering Science and Mechanics
- Alok Sinha, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
- Mohammad Abidian, Assistant Professor, Department of Bioengineering
- Mauricio Terrones, Professor, Department of Physics
- Jian Yang, Associate Professor, Department of Bioengineering
- Joan Richtsmeier, Professor of Biological Anthropology
- Ken Weiss, Evan Pugh Professor of Biological Anthropology and Genetics
- Tim Ryan, Assistant Professor, Biological Anthropology, Geosciences, and Information Sciences and Technology
- Xuemei Huang, Associate Professor of Neurology and Pharmacology
- Nanyin Zhang, Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Coming July 2013.
Schiff lab People.
Teaching and Curricula:
New Course Fall 2008, 2009, 2011: Neural Control Engineering
New Course Spring 2009, 2012: Neuroethics and Neurolaw
New Neural Engineering PhD Track in Engineering Sciences and Mechanics
New MD-PhD Track in Engineering Sciences and Mechanics
Conferences:
Implanting Change: The Ethics of Neural Prosthetics 2007
International Workshop on Seizure Prediction, 2011
Mathematical Biosciences Institute Neuroscience Year 2012-2013
Publications:
Scientific Articles Published in Refereed Journals | Invited Contributions and Reviews
Education & Training:
- SB, MIT, 1977
- MD, Duke University, 1980
- PhD (Physiology, G. Somjen), Duke University, 1985
- General Surgery Internship, Duke University, 1981
- Neurosurgery Residency, Duke University, 1989
- Pediatric Neurosurgery Fellowship, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 1990
Certification:
- Diplomat of the American Board of Neurological Surgery, 1992
Editorial Boards:
- Journal of Computational Neuroscience, Action Editor
- Physical Review Letters, Divisional Associate Editor (Biological Physics), 2006-2012
- Physical Review X, Editorial Board, 2012-
Recent Funding:
- NIH Fogarty International Center and NINDS, “Neurocognitive outcomes and changes in brain and CSF volume after treatment of post infectious hydrocephalus in Ugandan infants by shunting or ETV/CPC”, PI (multiple with Warf and Kulkarni)
- Pennsylvania Department of Health, Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement (CURE) Program, “Defining the Neonatal Septisome and Postinfectious Hydrocephalus”, PI
- I serve as mentor on Dr. Kamrunnahar's NIH Career Award
Misc:
- Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), 1994
- Independent Scientist Awards, National Institutes of Health, 1997, 2003
- Listed in 'Guide to America's Top Physicians', 2nd Edition, 2005, published by the Consumers' Research Council of America.
- Listed in 'Guide to America's Top Surgeons', 3rd Edition, 2006, published by the Consumers' Research Council of America.
- Fellow of the American Physical Society, 2005
- Citation: ”For his contributions to the physical and biological understanding and control of the dynamics of neural signals in the brain.“
- Fellow of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (FAANS), 2010
- Listed in 'Guide to America's Top Surgeons', 8th Edition, 2011, published by the Consumers' Research Council of America.
- Fellow of the The American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2012
- Citation: ”For distinguished contributions to the interface of neuroscience, physics, engineering, and medicine, and in particular the applications of control engineering to dynamical diseases of the brain.“
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- Music
- Nittany Valley Symphony, Viola Section
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