Dr. Benjamin Hayden is a Professor of Neuroscience at UMN. He received his PhD at UC Berkeley and then was a postdoc at Duke University. His research makes use of electrophysiological recordings to understand the neural mechanisms of economic choice and executive control. His lab is also interested in curiosity, counterfactual learning, and risky choice. His work has a strong focus on naturalistic behaviors, including complex and continuous tasks, and on unrestrained movement. His laboratory is also closely involved in neuromodulation research, including work focused on understanding the neural mechanisms of deep brain stimulation and on transcranial alternating current stimulation.

Alik Widge, MD, PhD is a brain stimulation psychiatrist and biomedical engineer. He is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota, where he directs the Translational NeuroEngineering Lab. Dr. Widge completed his MD at the University of Pittsburgh, his PhD in Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, psychiatry residency at the University of Washington, and fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on brain stimulation for severe and treatment-resistant mental illness, with particular emphasis on deep brain stimulation and related implantable technologies. Dr. Widge's recent work has demonstrated new algorithms for closed-loop brain stimulation and stimulation methods for modifying connectivity in the distributed circuits of mental illness. His laboratory studies rodent models for prototyping these new technologies and human patients to identify biomarkers and targets for future intervention. He also co-leads programs to design new neurostimulation technologies in the central and peripheral nervous systems.

Dr. Theoden Netoff is the Co-Director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Neuroengineering with Dr. Hubert Lim. He has chaired the Neuromodulation conference 3 times and is serving as the Conference Director this year. His research focuses on closed-loop and optimization of neuromodulation therapies for epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, and depression.