< BackResearch FacultyGianluca Lazzi

Gianluca Lazzi

Division: neural-electronics

Provost Professor of Ophthalmology and Electrical Engineering

Research Interests:

Gianluca Lazzi, PhD, MBA, focuses on the development of epiretinal implant devices, investigating the neural modeling of the degenerated retina stimulated by an epiretinal electrode array. His research will utilize all aspects of the ophthalmic engineering core including the USC Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics facility’s electronic and machine shop equipment for device development and analysis.

Biography:

Gianluca Lazzi, PhD, has focused his research on biomedical electromagnetics, as it applies to wireless and biomedical devices. Through his research efforts Lazzi has focused on the interaction between electromagnetic fields and biological tissue as it relates to the potential hazards to the human body due to devices radiating or inducing electromagnetic fields in tissue. Lazzi’s research contributed to define the computational methods that could be reliably used to assess the Specific Absorption Rate of power, or SAR, induced by wireless devices in the human body: this work directly impacted the acceptance of computational methods to demonstrate that wireless devices previously fulfilled IEEE safety standards prior to being marketed. Lazzi’s contributions in the field of implantable devices have been recognized with the election as AIMBE Fellow for “contributions to bioelectromagnetics and design of bioelectrical implantable devices,” election as a IEEE Fellow for “contributions to Bioelectromagnetics and implantable devices,” the IEEE Wheeler Best paper Award for a manuscript on the invention of microwave microantennas for implantable devices, and a R&D100 Award in 2009 for one of the 100 most significant inventions of 2009 (artificial retina). His team recently presented research on neuroprosthetics and multiscale modeling at the IEEE Grand Challenges in Life Science Symposium at the National Academies: parts of this inspired a position paper on the future grand challenges in life science published in IEEE Trans. on Biomedical Engineering, jointly prepared by all the presenters.

List of Publications:

E. Gamez, A. RamRakhyani, D. Schurig, G. Lazzi. Compact, Low-Frequency Metamaterial Design For Wireless Power Transfer Efficiency Enhancement. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, pp. 1644-1654, 2016K.
Loizos, A. RamRakhyani, J. Anderson, R. Marc, and G. Lazzi. On the Computation of a Retina Resistivity Profile for Applications in Multi-Scale Modeling of Electrical Stimulation and Absorption. Physics in Medicine and Biology, June 2016Z.
Kagan, A.K. RamRakhyani, G. Lazzi; R. A. Normann; D. J. Warren. In Vivo Magnetic Stimulation of Rat Sciatic Nerve With Centimeter- and Millimeter-Scale Solenoid Coils. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, pp. 1138-1147, 2016K. Loizos, C. Cela, R. Marc, and G. Lazzi. Virtual Electrode Design for Increasing Spatial Resolution in Retinal Prosthesis. Healthcare Technology Letters, IET, pp. 93-97, 2016Kumar, Z. Kagan, D. Warren, R. Normann and G. Lazzi. A μm-scale Computational Model of Magnetic Neural Stimulation in Multifascicular Peripheral Nerves. IEEE Transactions of Biomedical Engineering, vol.62, no.12, pp.2837-2849, Dec. 2015 (Featured Article)

Education:

Dr. Eng., Electronic Engineering, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Rome IT, 1994
PhD, Electrical Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 1998
MBA, IE Business School, Madrid ESP, 2015

Other web profiles:

Gianluca Lazzi, PhD, MBA