National Medal of Science

Dr. Emery N. Brown ’74 received the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest honor for achievement in science and engineering, for his work studying anesthesia’s effect on the brain. The award was presented at a White House ceremony in January.

Brown is a professor in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, a member of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, a professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School and an anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“Brown is at the forefront of the Institute’s collaborations among neuroscience, medicine and patient care,” says Nergis Mavalvala, dean of MIT’s School of Science. “His research has shifted the paradigm for brain monitoring during general anesthesia for surgery.”

Over the last 20 years, Brown has focused much of his signal-processing research to studying the neurophysiology of how anesthesia acts in the brain. His Emery N. Brown ’74 goal is to improve anesthesiology patient care and to use his understanding of how anesthesia works to gain a deeper understanding of brain function and to improve brain health.

“I’m extremely excited and quite honored to receive such an award because it is one of the pinnacles of recognition in the scientific field in the United States,” says Brown, who shares this year’s honor with 23 colleagues around the country