Sridevi Sarma

Sridevi Sarma, a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering and Vice Dean for Graduate Education, pioneers computational approaches to understand and treat neurological disorders. Her work bridges dynamical systems theory and clinical neuroscience to address epilepsy, chronic pain, and Parkinson’s disease. She directs the Neuromedical Control Systems Lab (NCSL) and co-leads the Institute of Computational Medicine.

• Education: PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (2006), MS (1997) from MIT; BS in Electrical Engineering (1994) from Cornell University

Her research integrates neural network modeling, control theory, and clinical data to develop tools like EZTrack—a patented system for epileptogenic zone localization. This tool, commercialized via Neurologic Solutions, Inc., improves surgical success rates and reduces presurgical hospitalizations. Additional work includes computational models for Parkinson's disease and chronic pain, revealing that high-frequency deep brain stimulation (DBS) restores brain network dynamics rather than merely suppressing abnormalities.

Recent publications focus on EEG biomarkers, fMRI network analysis, and machine learning applications in mental health diagnostics. Her lab's work spans epilepsy surgery optimization, neural encoding, and closed-loop stimulation systems.

Scientific awards include:

• GE Faculty for the Future Research Fellowship
• National Science Foundation Research Fellowship
• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), 2012
• Krishna Kumar New Investigator Award from North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS), 2014
• Whiting School of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award, 2015
• AIMBE Fellow, 2025
• NIH Outstanding Investigator Award, 2025

Sarma contributes to IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation as associate editor and leads special issues in Journal of Computational Neuroscience. She actively advises graduate researchers and has appeared on the Emmy-winning series Brain Games as a domain expert.