Norberto Grzywacz

Norberto
Grzywacz

Ph.D. Neuroscience | Principal Investigator

About

Dr. Norberto Grzywacz is a scientist, engineer, professor, and higher-education administrator with thirty-seven years of experience. Born in Brazil, he completed his Ph.D. studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. There, he began a highly interdisciplinary career, studying Physics, Mathematics, and Neuroscience. Afterward, he moved to MIT, where he was first a postdoctoral fellow, and then a research faculty member in both the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. After MIT, he worked at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, a non-profit organization devoted to the cure of blindness and low vision.

He later returned to academia, joining the University of Southern California as a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and later Neuroscience and Electrical Engineering. During his fourteen years at USC and beforehand, his research was at the interface between Computer Vision, Neuroengineering, and Visual Perception in the brain. In parallel, he began at USC his higher-education administrative career. He first founded and directed the Center for Visual Science and Technology, and then directed the Neuroscience Graduate Program. Next, he became the Chair for the Department of Biomedical Engineering. During his time as Chair, he launched a new research focus in the BME Department, namely, Cellular-Molecular Bioengineering. In addition, he managed to increase the diversity of the Department significantly and was a member of the Advisory Board of the USC Center for Engineering Diversity.

From USC, he moved to Georgetown University, where he became the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In that capacity, besides managing the affairs of ten thousand graduate students and their training faculty, he spearheaded the creation of ten new Master’s programs and three new Ph.D. degrees. Most of these programs were cross-school and interdisciplinary, focused on urgent and complex social problems, like addiction, environmental sustainability, and the aging of the population. He also established a new fellowship to increase the diversity of the Georgetown Ph.D.-student population. He continued his efforts on diversity after becoming the Provost of Loyola University Chicago. There, he established the Institute for Racial Justice, the Anti-Racism Initiative, and began a successful effort to increase the hiring of faculty of color. He also continued to work on programs focused on urgent and complex social problems, establishing the School of Environmental Sustainability. In parallel, his research focus shifted after moving to Georgetown University. He became interested in human values in the brain, specially those devoted to aesthetic emotions. His multi-disciplinary research teams have been highly interdisciplinary. These teams have included students of Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, Neuroscience, Psychology, Sociology, Architecture, Visual Arts, and Music.

Besides work, Norberto Grzywacz has an eclectic background. He is a first-generation scholar from Hispanic and Jewish descend, who has lived in many countries for a year or more. As such, he speaks, reads, and writes in six languages, namely, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and Hebrew. He is also an avid meditator, loves sports, specially soccer, as well as films, visual art, and classical music.