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Rodney O'Connor
B.Sc., M.Sc. (Laurentian), Ph.D. (Cambridge), HDR (Limoges)

Research interests and affiliations

Research interests
  • Bioelectronics
  • Neurotechnology
  • Bioelectrics
  • Neurophotonics
  • Bioelectrochemistry
  • Cancer
Expertise type(s) (NSERC subjects)
  • 1900 BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
  • 1901 Biomedical technology
  • 1902 Biomedical materials
  • 3113 Biophysics
  • 5501 Neurophysiology
  • 5111 Signal transduction
  • 5112 Electrophysiology

Publications

Recent publications

Biography

Prof. O’Connor is Scotttish but raised in Canada, where he was initially trained as a neuroscientist. His doctoral research was carried out at the University of Cambridge, where he received a Ph.D. for his work investigating the influence of pulsed microwaves on neurons and cell physiology. Thereafter, he held a Marie Curie fellowship at the European Laboratory for Nonlinear Spectroscopy (LENS) in Florence, Italy, applying multiphoton microscopy for in vivo imaging and femtosecond laser manipulation of the brain. He carried out further postdoctoral training in electrophysiology and optogenetics at the HHMI Janelia Research Campus, Boston University and Woods Hole, USA. He held a Labex Excellence Chair in Bioengineering at the XLIM Research Institute in Limoges, France, where he developed microdevices and applied advanced optical imaging tools to study the effects of ultrashort, intense pulsed electric fields on cancer in vitro and in vivo. He received a higher doctorate for habilitation (HDR) in France at XLIM in Limoges in 2016. Before mobility to Polytechnique, he was head of the Department of Bioelectronics at Ecole des Mines de Saint-Etienne, France, where he is Full Professor of Neurotechnology. His research centers on the development of new neurotechnologies using organic electronic materials for interfacing with the brain, sensing and treating cancer. He is interested in the bioelectrical basis of disease and combining Bioelectronics, Bioelectrics and Neurophotonics approaches.

Education

  • Bachelor in Science, Laurentian University
  • Master's in Science, Laurentian University
  • Ph.D. (Cambridge University)
  • Post-doc, European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS), Italy
  • Post-doc, HHMI Janelia Research Campus, Boston University
  • HDR, XLIM, Limoges University, France