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Gregory T. A. Kovacs, M.D., Ph.D.

Gregory T. A. Kovacs received a BASc degree in electrical engineering from the University of British Columbia, an MS degree in bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in electrical engineering and an MD degree from Stanford University.

He is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. Professor Kovacs' research areas include the development of non-invasive instruments for cardiovascular medicine; titration of medical care via embedded systems; and remote delivery of laboratory electronics education. He teaches hands-on undergraduate courses in analog circuit design and medical instrument design. He led the initial development of the Bioengineering graduate core curriculum sequence as well as co-founding the Bioengineering Department. Kovacs has published over 180 peer-reviewed articles, has been granted 44 patents, and has designed a large number of electronic circuits and systems.

Kovacs has extensive industry experience co-founding companies, including Cepheid, which has shipped more than 25 million nucleic acid diagnostics, and PhysioWave, developer of non-invasive cardiovascular risk assessment devices. He is a founder and Chief Technical Advisor of Malibu IQ, a private equity fund created to commercialize the intellectual property portfolio of HRL (formerly Hughes Research Laboratories).

He has a long history of service to DoD, DoE, NASA and other government agencies. In 2003, he served as the Investigation Scientist for the debris team of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, then as Engineering/Medical Liaison on the Spacecraft Crew Survival Integration Investigation Team (SCSIIT) of the Johnson Space Center. From 2008 through 2010 he was Director of the Microelectronics Technology Office at DARPA, leading deployment of a total $1.6B for DoD-relevant and basic-science research.

Prof. Kovacs received an NSF Young Investigator Award, held the Noyce Family Chair, was a Terman and then University Fellow at Stanford, then the Thomas V. Jones Development Scholar. Kovacs is a Fellow of the IEEE and of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. In 2010 he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service.

He is a private pilot, scuba diver, and a Fellow National of the Explorers Club. He was a member of a NASA team that climbed Licancabur volcano (19,734 ft.) on the Chile/Bolivia border in November of 2003, serving as medical, physiologic research, and photography lead. In November of 2004, he served the same role on a return expedition to Licancabur, and carried out medical research and underwater videography in the summit lake. He has considerable experience in microgravity and high-altitude medical research.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Stanford University
Department of Electrical Engineering
Center for Integrated Systems
CIS 202-X Mailcode: 4075
Stanford, CA 94305-4075
Email: kovacs@cis.stanford.edu