UT Brainstorms

Meet the Panelists
Dr. Samantha Santacruz received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering at Rice University in 2014. She is an Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Engineering (BME) department at the University of Texas, Austin. Research in the Santacruz lab focuses on the engineering advancement of neuroprosthetics and their therapeutic application to a growing range of neurological disorders. The lab studies how the brain changes and functions by using in vivo experiments and various techniques to observe and influence neural states. They analyze the resulting data using signal processing and machine learning to understand how brain activity evolves across different regions. These analyses help reveal how key neural processes work and guide ideas for new neurotherapies, which are later tested in vivo. The lab also develops neural interfaces for neuroprosthetics and stimulation-based therapeutic devices.

Dr. Jon Willie, MD, PhD, FAANS, is a board-certified neurosurgeon in UT Health Austin’s Functional Neurosurgery Clinic and an Associate professor in the Dell Medical School Department of Neurosurgery at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Willie earned his medical degree and doctorate in biomedical sciences at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He completed a residency in neurological surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital through the Washington University School of Medicine and a fellowship in stereotactic, functional, and epilepsy neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Willie is a nationally recognized leader in functional neurosurgery, with expertise in epilepsy surgery, deep brain stimulation, and minimally invasive laser therapies.

Dr. Lewis-Peacock received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering, M.S. in Computer Science, and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute at Princeton University before joining the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin in 2013, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Psychology. Dr. Lewis-Peacock investigates how the human brain supports our ability to accomplish goals. Specifically, he focuses on the intersection of cognitive control and memory for goal-directed behavior. His lab uses a combination of neuroimaging and computational techniques, including multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI data and real-time functional neuroimaging, to characterize core features of human cognition