Dr. Schiff: I am a pediatric neurosurgeon and was recruited to Yale in 2022 from Penn State University, where I founded the Center for Neural Engineering. Along the way, I became very involved in trying to understand a novel neonatal brain infection responsible for a large number of infant deaths and postinfectious hydrocephalus requiring neurosurgery in East Africa.
EMD Lab Spotlight Series: Dr. Steven Schiff
How long have you been a part of Yale EMD, and what was your journey to get here?
What made you decide to apply to be part of Yale EMD faculty?
Dr. Schiff: Although I have spent my career as a neurosurgeon, my interest in preventing infant hydrocephalus led me to epidemiology and the study of infectious diseases. Being part of EMD opens new opportunities to advance this goal.
What are some of the most significant findings or innovations from your research?
Dr. Schiff: I led the discovery of a new disease - Neonatal Paenibacilliosis - in African infants, now increasingly recognized in the United States.
What previous work are you most proud of?
Dr. Schiff: I am proud to have authored the first textbook on Neural Control Engineering (MIT Press, 2012), a fusion of control theory and computational neuroscience. Control engineering principles involve using feedback to automatically regulate a system's output to a desired state
What are you working on at the moment?
Dr. Schiff: I am working on Digital Twin technologies for AI-assisted control of preventable causes of infant mortality (e.g., neonatal sepsis and neural tube defects) and also comparing the brain dynamics of autistic and neurotypical children.
Where do you see the field of global health research heading in the next few years, and what role do you hope your work will play in this future landscape?
Dr. Schiff: I am focused on using control engineering principles as a foundational strategy to achieve sustainable health care. This strategy – which employs real-time feedback to track how a system is performing and automatically makes adjustments so it stays on course – is applicable anywhere, but I focus on adapting this in impoverished settings where the need is greatest.
What advice would you give early career researchers starting out in the field of global health and EMD more broadly?
Dr. Schiff: Follow your passions, but be sure the path seems very useful and helpful to others. Try to figure out what you can pursue, what you would want to do even if you weren't paid. Avoid work that is merely incremental in advancing knowledge, but instead strive to maximize your impact during the limited time that all of us have on Earth.
What do you look for in an MPH or PhD student looking to join your lab? Are there any immediate/future opportunities for students to join?
Dr. Schiff: I look for people with a passion for the types of work we do, and I look for special skills. We do a lot of team science, so it is also critical that students are committed to collaboration with the others on our teams in the US and overseas. Lastly, I look for a person with the ability to work independently. We want our graduate and professional students to be valued investigators with us.