Jacob T. Robinson

Jacob T. Robinson is a Professor in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Bioengineering at Rice University. He also holds adjunct appointments at Baylor College of Medicine and is CEO of Motif Neurotech. His research focuses on developing nanoscale neurotechnologies for neural circuit analysis and bioelectronic medicine. Robinson earned his B.S. in Physics from UCLA (2003) and Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell University (2008), followed by postdoctoral training at Harvard University.

Key research areas include:

• Next-gen brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) using magnetoelectric materials
• Translational bioelectronics for non-invasive therapies
• NeuroAI systems leveraging cross-species neural data

Publications span high-impact journals like Nature Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Neuron, with recent work focusing on miniaturized implants and hybrid bioelectronic systems. Awards include the 2022 Charles Duncan Award and DARPA Young Faculty Award (2014). He has advised over 30 PhD students and 40+ undergraduates since joining Rice in 2012.

Led the development of the FlatScope lensless microscope and co-founded Motif Neurotech to commercialize therapeutic BCIs. Active in neurotechnology ethics and serves on multiple editorial/advisory boards.