Karen Moxon Receives Outstanding Senior Faculty Award
Professor of Biomedical Engineering Karen Moxon has received the 2025 Outstanding Senior Faculty Award from the College of Engineering. The award celebrates excellence in research from a senior-level faculty member.
Without Moxon’s pathbreaking work on neural encoding, neuroprosthetics and brain-machine interfaces, the field of neuroengineering would not be where it is today.
She has been continuously funded throughout her career by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, publishing over 200 papers on neuroengineering, including her landmark 1999 article on real-time neurorobotic control in awake animals. This research was instrumental in developing closed-loop, brain-controlled neurotechnologies that restore function to patients with spinal cord injuries and epilepsy.
She is currently the principal investigator on a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contract, continuing this work. The $26 million award is one of the largest single PI-led awards in the College of Engineering’s history.
Moxon’s leadership extends beyond research. She helped co-found the Center for Neuroengineering and Medicine and is the director of the National Science Foundation-funded NeuralStorm program that prepares graduate students for neuroengineering careers, both at UC Davis. She is also the founder of Women in Neural Engineering, a global network for championing women neuroengineers.
Moxon joined the college in 2016. She received her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her master’s and doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado.