Paul Sanberg is Senior Vice President for Research, Innovation & Knowledge Enterprise; Distinguished University Professor of Medicine, Engineering, and Business; and Executive Director, Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair at the University of South Florida, and President of the National Academy of Inventors. His work has been instrumental in understanding and developing new pharmaceutical and cellular therapeutics for stroke, Alzheimer’s, ALS, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s disease and Tourette syndrome. He trained at York University, University of British Columbia, The Australian National University, and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; and held faculty appointments at the University of Cincinnati and Brown University, among others.
His research involves discovering innovative ways to repair the damaged brain, and he helped lead the team that demonstrated the use of umbilical cord blood derived cells for neurological disease. He is an inventor on 160 worldwide patents, and author of more than 660 articles and 14 books, with more than 32,000 citations. He has served on numerous scientific advisory boards, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health. He has industry experience as a founder or director of a number of companies involved in cell therapy for degenerative disorders. He has served on editorial boards for more than 30 scientific journals, is co-editor-in-chief of Technology and Innovation: Journal of the National Academy of Inventors, and has served as president of a number of professional societies, including the American Society for Neural Transplantation and Repair, Cell Transplant Society, and International Behavioral Neuroscience Society.
He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering; National Academy of Inventors, Royal Societies of Chemistry, Public Health, and Medicine. His many awards include: Fulbright Specialist to Australia, Sigma Xi’s John P. McGovern Science & Society Award; Florida Academy of Sciences Medalist, Florida Inventors Hall of Fame inductee, and inaugural AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador. He also serves on the nomination evaluation committee of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation; Smithsonian Innovation Festival selection committee; and APLU Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Economic Prosperity.