Prof. Metin Akay received his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey in 1981 and 1984, respectively and a Ph.D. degree from Rutgers University in 1990.

He has played a key role in promoting the biomedical education in the world by writing several prestigious books and editing the Biomedical Engineering Book Series published by the Wiley and IEEE Press Prof Akay is author/coauthor/editor of 14 books and giving more 50 keynote, plenary and invited talks at the international meetings including the first, second and third Latin-American Conference on Biomedical Engineering'98, 01, 04.

He is the founding chair of the Annual International Summer School on Biocomplexity from System, to Gene sponsored by the NSF and Dartmouth College and technically co-sponsored by the IEEE EMBS, of the Satellite Conference on Emerging Technologies in Biomedical Engineering. He is also the founding chair of the International IEEE Conference on Neural Engineering, in 2003. These activities were sponsored by the NSF and largely attended by the women and minorities.

Dr. Paul Sajda is Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Radiology (Physics) at Columbia University. He is also a Member of Columbia’s Data Science Institute. Sajda is interested in what happens in our brains when we make a rapid decision and, conversely, what processes and representations in our brains drive our underlying preferences and choices, particularly when we are under time pressure. His work in understanding the basic principles of rapid decision-making in the human brain relies on measuring human subject behavior simultaneously with cognitive and physiological state. Important in his approach is his use of machine learning and data analytics to fuse these measurements for predicting behavior and infer brain responses to stimuli. Sajda applies the basic principles he uncovers to construct real-time brain-computer interfaces that are aimed at improving interactions between humans and machines. He is also applying his methodology to understand how deficits in rapid decision-making may underlie and be diagnostic of many types of psychiatric diseases and mental illnesses.

Of particular interest to Sajda is how different areas in the human brain interact to change our arousal state and modulate our decision-making. Specifically he is using simultaneous EEG and fMRI together with pupillometry to identify and track spatiotemporal interactions between the anterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and subcortical nuclei such as the locus coeruleus. He has found that the dynamics of these interactions are altered under stress, particularly when dealing with high-pressure decisions with critical performance boundaries. These findings are being transitioned to applications ranging from to tracking pilot cognitive state while operating fighter aircraft to identifying biomarkers of healthy thought patterns in patients being treated for major depressive disorder and/or complicated grief. Sajda is a co-founder of several neurotechnology companies and works closely with a range of scientists and engineers, including neuroscientists, psychologists, computer scientists, and clinicians.

Dr. Yasemin M. Akay is currently an Intructional and Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston. She received her B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey in 1980 and M.S. and Ph.D in Biomedical Engineering from the Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA in 1991 and 1998, respectively.

She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Physiology and Pharmacology Departments, Dartmouth Medical School and at the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Boston University, School of Medicine. She was also an assistant editor for the IEEE (Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Book Series from September 2001 to May 2004 and managing editor for the Wiley Encyclopedia of Biomedical Engineering from May 2004 till present. Her current research interests include Molecular Neuroengineering, Neural Growth and Neurodegeneration.

Dr. Michalis Zervakis holds a Ph.D degree from the University of Toronto, Department of Electrical Engineering, since 1990. He joined the Technical University of Crete on January 1995, where he is currently full professor at the department of Electronic and Computer Engineering. Prof. Zervakis is the director of the Digital Image and Signal Processing Laboratory (DISPLAY) and is involved in research on modern aspects of signal processing, including estimation and constrained optimization, multi-channel and multi-band signal processing, wavelet analysis for data/ image processing and compression, biomedical imaging applications, neural networks and fuzzy logic in automation applications. He has been involved in more than 20 international projects and has published more than 90 papers in related areas of image/signal processing.

Dr. Ting Chen received his BS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Arizona State Univesity. In 2010, he joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Houston as an Instructional Assistant Professor. He received his MBA from Indiana University in 2017. He is now the Associate Chair for the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Houston.

Ms. Nancy Zimmerman is the Executive Director of IEEE EMBS. She is a visionary, strategic, and entrepreneurial leader with an impressive professional background in product management, strategic marketing, and operations. Her professional resume includes working with such brands as Procter & Gamble, Girl Scouts USA, and Hackensack Meridian Health. With an academic background consistent with her career, Nancy holds BA degree from Indiana University in Brand Identity, and an MBA from the University of Cincinnati with a concentration in marketing. Always helpful and happy to engage, Nancy is excited to be part of the EMBS team.