Scientific Advisory Board

HoustonBionics’ Scientific Advisory Board members are highly respected and accomplished thought leaders from academia, clinical practice, and commercial healthcare organizations.

Marcia O’Malley, Ph.D.

Associate Dean for Research and Innovation
Thomas Michael Panos Family Professor in Mechanical Engineering
Rice University

Dr. O’Malley leads the Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Lab, and her research at Rice University focuses on the issues that arise when humans physically interact with robotic systems. She is one of the leading researchers in robotic rehabilitation and haptics interaction with more than 300 publications with an h-index of 41. Dr. O’Malley is a Thomas Michael Panos Family Professor in Mechanical Engineering while also serving as the Associate Dean for Research and Innovation for the George R. Brown School of Engineering.

Nuray Yozbatiran PT, Ph.D.

Associate Professor for Research
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth.

Dr. Yozbatiran has been involved in clinical studies emphasizing recovery of upper-limb functions after stroke and spinal cord injury by using robotic exoskeletons, neuromodulation techniques i.e.,transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and used functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to study the mechanism of recovery. With more than 50 internationally cited publications, Dr. Yozbatiran has been a trailblazer in the research of development and optimization of treatment protocols for rehabilitation of upper-limb movements in persons with stroke, spinal cord injury, and traumatic brain injury.

Engin Cakar, M.D., Prof. Dr.

Chair
Stroke Focused Neuro-recovery Center
Memorial HealthCare Group

Dr. Cakar is the Chair of Stroke Focused Neuro-recovery at Memorial Healthcare Group. After focusing on electro-diagnostic neurology and pain management throughout his graduate studies, Dr. Cakar investigated transcranial magnetic stimulation in neurorehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. Besides his more than 20-year-long academic career focusing on stroke and traumatic brain injury rehabilitation, he is an entrepreneur. He aims to provide solutions that make telerehabilitation more accessible to neurologically impaired individuals.

Ozkan Celik, Ph.D.

Sr. Robotics Researcher
Applied Materials

During his doctorate studies, Dr. Celik developed algorithms to capture movement quality improvements of patients going through neuro-recovery using robotic data. His publications on the rehabilitation-robotics, human-robot interaction, and haptics fields were cited more than 1000 times in widely respected academic journals. After taking academic positions at Rice University, San Francisco State University, and Colorado School of mines, Dr. Celik currently assumes a senior roboticist role in a Fortune 500 company.