School of Engineering
Brown-RISD Master of Arts in Design Engineering

David A. Borton

Associate Professor of Engineering, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, Associate Professor of Brain Science

Biography

David Borton received his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St.
Louis in 2006, his PhD in Bioengineering from Brown University in 2012, and performed a Marie
Curie post-doctoral fellowship at the Ecole Polytechnique Fèdèrale de Lausanne.


David Borton is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Brown University School of
Engineering, the Carney Institute for Brain Science, and is a Biomedical Engineer at the
Providence Veterans Affairs Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology. Prof. Borton
leads an interdisciplinary team of researchers focused on the design, development, and
deployment of novel neural recording and stimulation technologies. Prof. Borton’s team
leverages engineering principles to untangle the underpinnings of sensorimotor and
neuropsychiatric disease and injury. In 2015, Prof. Borton was awarded prestigious Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award for his work on spinal cord
electrical stimulation as a means to restore sensory perception, followed in 2017 by the DARPA
Director’s Award. His work has been featured in Nature, Neuron, and Science Translational
Medicine, among others and the laboratory is currently supported by the U.S. Department of
Defense, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Institute of
Mental Health, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, and industry partnerships.