In 1976, he emigrated to Canada to study neurosurgery, then moved to Chicago and earned a doctorate at Northwestern, studying neurophysiology and neuroanatomy. A naturalized U.S. citizen, Kennedy joined Georgia Tech in 1986 as a research scientist, when he also started developing his neurotrophic electrode. From 1990 to 1997, he served as director of Tech's Neuroscience Laboratory. For the past two years Kennedy has divided his time among a private neurology practice and his research, the latter facilitated by an affiliation with Emory's School of Medicine. Kennedy and his co-researchers must be very selective for the human trials.
People have to be cognitively intact and know what's going on, but be unable to communicate.
The latest patient has been bedridden for the past four years and in a severely weakened state for the past 10. The metabolic muscle disease afflicting T.T. has left him with only slight eye movement left and right, and slight head movement, says Kennedy. While a professor at Georgia Tech, Kennedy began exploring ways to use computers to harness brainwaves. Advances in computer minaturization have made possible much of his progress over the years. The technique's key component is the hollow glass, cone-shaped neurotrophic electrode.