Michael Merzenich, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, University of California at San Francisco
Chief Scientific Officer, Posit Science
As co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Posit Science, Michael Merzenich heads the company’s global team. For more than three decades, Dr. Merzenich has been a leading pioneer in brain plasticity research. In the late 1980s, Dr. Merzenich was on the team that invented the cochlear implant, now distributed by market leader Advanced Bionics. In 1996, Dr. Merzenich was the founding CEO of Scientific Learning Corporation (Nasdaq: SCIL), which markets and distributes software that applies principles of brain plasticity to assist children with language learning and reading. Dr. Merzenich has published more than 200 articles, including many in leading peer-reviewed journals (such as Science and Nature), received numerous awards and prizes (including the Ipsen Prize, Zülch Prize, Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award and Purkinje Medal), and been granted more than 50 patents for his work.. Dr. Merzenich’s is also often covered in the popular press, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, Forbes, and Newsweek. He has also appeared extensively on television, and his work was featured on the PBS specials “The Brain Fitness Program” and “Brain Fitness 2: Sight and Sound.” Dr. Merzenich earned his BS degree at the University of Portland and his PhD at Johns Hopkins. He retired from his long career as Francis A. Sooy Professor and Co-Director of the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience at the University of California at San Francisco in 2007. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1999 and will be inaugurated into the Institute of Medicine this year.
