The College of Engineering and Science at Louisiana Tech University is pleased to announce that Dr. Leon Iasemidis will join the biomedical engineering and rehabilitation science program this fall as the H.A. ‘Dusty’ Rhodes Eminent Scholar Chair. Iasemidis joins Louisiana Tech after several years at Arizona State University where he earned tenure as an associate professor of bioengineering.  He was also an affiliate professor of electrical engineering and of neurosciences, and was an adjunct professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic Arizona in Phoenix. A recognized expert in nonlinear dynamics and epileptic research, Iasemidis brings an outstanding history of scholarship to Louisiana Tech. His research has stimulated an international interest in the prediction and control of epileptic seizures and an understanding of how epilepsy develops. Dr. Eric Guilbeau, director of biomedical engineering at Louisiana Tech, says that this addition to the faculty will help continue the program’s tradition of excellence. “We are extremely pleased that Dr. Iasemidis will be joining the Biomedical Engineering program,” said Guilbeau.  “His decision to move to Louisiana Tech University will allow us to continue to provide outstanding educational opportunities for students interested in neural engineering and to expand and strengthen our neuroscience research collaborations with the LSUHSC-Shreveport.” As the H.A. ‘Dusty’ Rhodes Endowed Chair, Iasemidis will lead the development of the Institute for Biomedical Engineering, and use his expertise to foster collaborations with the LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. Iasemidis is the co-author of ten patents and the co-founder of two companies that advance neuromodulation in the control of epilepsy.  His research has been featured in such publications as the New York Times and Discover Magazine, and has been funded by a number of prestigious agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Epilepsy Foundation of America, the Science Foundation of Arizona and the Whitaker Foundation. In addition to his research, Iasemidis has served on the editorial board of Epilepsia and the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, and is currently an associate editor for the Annals of Biomedical Engineering and the International Journal of Neural Systems.  He earned M.S. degrees in physics and biomedical engineering, and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Written by Catherine Fraser – cfraser@latech.edu