For our August session on the 28th, we will be hosting Dora Hermes Miller and Kai Miller.

Dora Hermes Miller, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Mayo Clinic. With a strong background in mathematics, Dr. Hermes and her lab are experts in studying neurophysiological signals to identify biomarkers of neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases and develop neuroprosthetics that interface with the brain. Dr. Hermes uses multimodal imaging and computational modeling, in collaboration with neurologists and neurosurgeons, to understand how smart sensing can lead to new therapeutic devices that control epileptic brain activity. The title of her talk will be “Single Pulse Stimulation-Driven Biomarkers of Human Brain Connectivity.”

Kai Miller, MD, PhD, is a pediatric and adult neurosurgeon specializing in brain tumors, epilepsy, and deep-brain stimulation. He is also a Professor of Neurosurgery and an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Psychiatry. His research interests are fueled by his background in physics, with a focus on cybernetics, neurosurgical stereotaxy, and large-scale brain dynamics. The title of his talk is “Probing the Connectivity of Brain Stimulation Using Single Pulses of Current.”

In 2023, both Kai and Dora Miller published two landmark papers in Nature Neuroscience exploring the organization of the primary motor cortex using invasive electrophysiological recordings in humans and measuring conductivity delays along fiber pathways in the human brain.