DECEMBER 7, 2023

IARS Emeritus Trustee Emery N. Brown, MD, PhD

IARS Trustee Emeritus Emery N. Brown, MD, PhD, has been elected to join the 2023 class of new members of the American Philosophical Society, the United States’ oldest learned society. Founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin, the society’s mission is “promoting useful knowledge” by honoring leading scholars, scientists and professionals through elected membership and offering opportunities for interdisciplinary, intellectual fellowship. Recognized as one of these leading scholars and scientists, Dr. Brown signed the Roll Book as a new member during a ceremonial moment at the society’s fall meeting in Philadelphia on November 18.

Dr. Brown is the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, filling multiple roles as a practicing anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and also as a neuroscientist and statistician. For nearly 20 years, he has seamlessly integrated these three focuses into his research and clinical work, making important strides towards understanding the neuroscience of how anesthetics act in the brain to create the states of general anesthesia.

Early in his research, Dr. Brown elucidated vital knowledge around statistical analysis of neuroscience data, such as decoding a rodent’s memory of its location in a maze from “state-space” analysis of neural spike train data in the hippocampus. These analyses have led to wide applications in studies of learning and memory, brain-computer interfaces and systems neuroscience.

Throughout his career, Dr. Brown, who is also a professor at Harvard Medical School, has remained resolute in his search for answers to the unsolved questions in anesthesiology and neuroscience, applying his statistics and neuroscience expertise towards pivotal studies on how each major anesthetic drug affects brain circuits to induce and maintain simultaneous but reversible states of unconsciousness, amnesia, immobility, and analgesia. Dr. Brown and collaborators have been successful in showing how doses of each of these drugs produces oscillation signatures in EEG measurements that directly convey brain state at the systems neuroscience level. In his most recent publication, he revealed how a closed-loop automated system can employ such brain state measurements to constantly optimize doses of propofol to maintain a desired level of unconsciousness. This method can decrease postoperative complications such as cognitive dysfunction in the clinical setting.

Continuing to look towards the future of scientific discovery, Dr. Brown is currently embarking on a new enterprise, the Brain Arousal State Control Innovation Center, at MIT and MGH, to offer more research programs that blend anesthesiology and neuroscience with the ultimate goal of improving patient care.

On receiving this recognition from the American Philosophical Society, Dr. Brown shared that he was motivated by the society’s history and mission. “I am highly honored to be inducted to the American Philosophical Society,” he said. “This august society was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin. Its objective of fostering the growth of useful knowledge is even more relevant today. I hope that my work can make at least a small contribution to this effort.”

Learn more: https://picower.mit.edu/news/emery-n-brown-elected-member-american-philosophical-society