I am a Professor of Neurosurgery at the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurological Surgery at the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth and the Chief of the Epilepsy Surgery Program at the Texas Comprehensive Epilepsy Program (TCEP), a collaborative program between UT Health and Memorial Hermann Mischer Neuroscience Institute at the Texas Medical Center. I have special interest and expertise in the safe resection and laser ablation of tumors and seizure foci from eloquent foci like the hippocampus, language cortex and deep brain structures using microsurgical techniques. Increasingly we are also developing and applying innovative new technologies for the neuromodulation of epilepsy.

In addition, I direct the Neuroimaging & Electrophysiology Lab for McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. We use direct electro-physiologic brain recordings and stimulation to understand how the human brain makes language, memory and exercises self-control. Some of this research work has percolated into clinical application, enabling safer surgeries and improve cognitive outcomes.

A longer-term vision of the lab and of the Texas Institute of Restorative Neurotechnologies which I co-direct, is the restoration of brain function, particularly the augmentation of cognition using innovative neural engineering and computational neuroscience approaches. We are supported in this work by the NIH, the University of Texas and our grateful patients.