Previously, Nicolelis had been best known for implanting electrode arrays into a monkey’s brain that allowed him to detect the monkey’s motor intent and then control the animal’s reaching and grasping movements performed by a robotic arm. He is the co-founder and scientific director of the Safra International Institute for Neuroscience of Natal, a brain research facility in Brazil, and in 2011 was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.