Amy Orsborn, UW assistant professor in Bioengineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering, has been awarded a 2025 Sloan Research Fellowship, one of the most prestigious honors awarded to early-career researchers in the U.S and Canada. The competitive fellowship recognizes 126 promising scholars with leadership potential. Many past fellows have later earned Nobel Prizes and National Medals of Science.
Orsborn’s research is focused on understanding motor learning principles to enhance movement-restoring therapies. Her work combines engineering and neuroscience to develop brain-machine interfaces that restore, replace and augment nervous system function, particularly for movement disorders such as paralysis from spinal cord injuries or strokes. Her lab works to make these interfaces more effective by tapping into neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to adapt) and using them to better understand how learning happens in the brain.
In her Sloan Research Fellowship nomination letter, UW Bioengineering Professor and Chair Princess Imoukhuede wrote, “What makes Dr. Orsborn unique is her computational mindset, rooted in her engineering and physics background, combined with her deep expertise in experimental systems neuroscience. She performs cutting-edge experiments in non-human primates and humans using advanced computational and neurophysiological tools to reveal new insights into how neural circuits learn.”
The two-year fellowship provides awardees with $75,000 which can be applied to any expenses that supports their research endeavors. “The award will help us continue to take new risks and explore new projects,” Orsborn said. “Its support will help us go a little deeper and tackle harder questions.”
In addition to the Sloan Research Fellowship, Orsborn has received numerous awards and honors including a National Science Foundation Career Award, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) Emerging Leaders Program Award and the inaugural Washington Research Foundation – Ronald S. Howell Distinguished Faculty Fellowship.
To learn more about Prof. Orsborn and her research, visit her faculty page or lab website.
Read about the other 2025 UW Sloan Research Fellows in UW News