Dr. Richard Andersen

Biography

Richard Andersen is the James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience at the California Institute of Technology and serves as the Leadership Chair and Director of the T&C Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center. He earned his B.S. from the University of California, Davis in 1973 and completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, San Francisco in 1979. He has been a faculty member at Caltech since 1993. His research focuses on the neural mechanisms of planning and decision-making, with an emphasis on neural prosthetics and brain repair. His current studies involve examining how the posterior parietal cortex contributes to sensory-guided movements and the planning of actions. Andersen's work aims to develop cognitive-based neural prosthetic devices for paralyzed patients by interpreting electrical activity in the brain to decode intentions for controlling robotic limbs. His lab is also transitioning to clinical trials, exploring techniques to restore movement capabilities in patients with paralysis using brain stimulation and advanced computational algorithms.

Research Interests