Kevin Warwick

Kevin was formerly Professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, where he is now Emeritus Professor. Kevin was born in Coventry, UK and left school to join British Telecom, at the age of 16. At 22 he took his first degree at Aston University, followed by a PhD and research post at Imperial College, London. He subsequently held positions at Oxford, Newcastle, Warwick and Reading Universities before moving to Coventry.

As well as publishing well over 500 research papers, Kevin’s experiments into implant technology led to him being featured as the cover story on the US magazine, ‘Wired’. His research has involved himself as a self-experimenter, hence he is frequently referred to as the world’s first Cyborg.

Kevin has been awarded eight Honorary Doctorates by UK Universities, including Coventry, and one by Sts. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje. He was presented with The Future of Health Technology Award in MIT, was made an Honorary Member of the Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, received The IEE Senior Achievement Medal, the IET Mountbatten Medal and in 2011 the Ellison-Cliffe Medal from the Royal Society of Medicine. In 2000 Kevin presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, entitled “The Rise of the Robots”.

Kevin’s research has involved the design of an intelligent deep brain stimulator to counteract the effects of Parkinson Disease tremors. The tremors are predicted and a current signal is applied to stop the tremors before they start. Another project involves the use of cultured/biological neural networks to drive robots around – the brain of each robot is made of neural tissue. Kevin is though best known for his pioneering experiments involving a neuro-surgical implantation into the median nerves of his own left arm to link his nervous system directly to a computer to assess the latest technology for use with the disabled. He was successful with the first extra-sensory (ultrasonic) input for a human and with the first purely electronic telegraphic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans.

Kevin is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and was elected to the International Academy of Cybernetics and Systems.