Lavin Exclusive Speaker
Greg Gage is starting a neuro-revolution—or “neuroscience for the 99%.” That means affordable, DIY labs in classrooms around the world. From his live experiments on the TED stage (now with over 8 million views!) to his appearances on CNN and Netflix, Gage is a brilliant scientist instilling a love for the brain in kids everywhere: a generation poised to cure neurological disorders and spearhead bio-infused design.
Greg Gage is a charismatic, visionary scientist who’s revolutionizing, and democratizing, how we teach, talk about, and apply groundbreaking innovations around the brain. As Co-founder of the company Backyard Brains, he’s dragging neuroscience out of universities and making it available to everyone, offering kits and resources to schools that get students experimenting with how neurons fire, how our nervous system operates, and how we move and think and feel. Today, it’s estimated that over a billion people suffer from neurological disorders. So Gage knows that getting kids passionate about science early not only means more careers in the STEM fields, but new cures for seemingly untreatable illnesses.
As a TED Speaker—with videos viewed over 8 million times—he’s dazzled audiences with live, interactive demonstrations at TED2017, TED2015, TEDGlobal, TED-Ed, and at numerous TEDx events, giving rise to huge laughs and profound, “ah-ha!” moments. With his “Spiker Box,” he’s allowed users to manipulate other people’s limbs—with the mind alone. With his “RoboRoach,” he’s created the first commercial cyborg: a cockroach fitted with an electric backpack which allows users to control it using an app. And at TED2017, he gave a live example of how plants use electrical signals to move, feed, and even count. He made CNN’s influential “Next List,” was featured on Netflix’s new series White Rabbit Project, and even had his experiments employed live on the Today Show. His work has been featured in Popular Science, the Huffington Post, Daily Mail, The Scientist, Ozy, and beyond.
His current projects are revolutionary, to say the least. His “Learn While You Sleep” project is developing ways we can increase and strengthen our memories—and even introduce memories—during slow wave sleep. With “The Killer Dragonflies,” he’s applying DIY sensors to dragonflies to show how they lock onto prey, capture it within milliseconds, and enjoy a 97% rate of accuracy—offering profound implications for improving human balance and vision. And his “DIY Mind-Reading” project reveals that we can actually observe brain-wave responses in subjects while doing simple tasks—like looking at photographs—in real time.
Gage is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the United States “Champions of Change” award, presented at the White House for his work in promoting citizen science, and the “Next Generation Award” from the Society of Neuroscience for his “outstanding contributions to public outreach and science education.” He has been funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health and Start-up Chile to bring Backyard Brains experiments and teaching tools into Spanish for Latin American markets.
Currently, Gage is dedicated to advanced education as much as bringing neuroscience to adolescents. He is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan, Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Neuroscience Program at Michigan State University, and is a Lecturer in Methods in Computational Neuroscience at the Marine Biological Laboratory. He holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan, an M.E. in Computer Engineering from the University of South Carolina, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University.