Christopher Columbus Coin Image

Christopher Columbus Foundation Award 1996

The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation is proud to have honored the innovation of the following $100,000 Christopher Columbus Foundation Award Columbus Scholar:

1996 Columbus Scholar

Kensall D. Wise, Ph.D. Kensall D. Wise, Ph.D.

Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Microprobes

In 1996, Dr. Kensall D. Wise was the first recipient of the $100,000 Christopher Columbus Foundation Award. Dr. Wise has created "microprobes," tiny electronic devices for stimulating and monitoring the activity of nerve cells. Microprobes are becoming widely used in research on the nervous system at the cellular level. The electronic probes can be implanted deep into brain tissue and used to monitor and stimulate the brain. Eventually, the microprobes may help people with hearing loss, spinal injuries, restore eyesight and control seizures.

Upon receipt of the award Dr. Wise said, "Support from the Christopher Columbus Foundation will allow this work to be applied, for the first time, to a prosthesis for human use." A flexible thin-film electrode array has been developed that can be inserted into the cochlea of the inner ear, bypassing defective hair cells to restore hearing to the profoundly deaf. New technology permits circuitry to be distributed along the array.

 

Evaluation Committee
The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation is honored to have had the assistance of the following distinguished individuals serving on the Christopher Columbus Foundation Award Evaluation Committee:

1996 Evaluation Committee:

  • Robert A. Frosch, Ph.D., CSIA, John F. Kennedy Center of Government, Cambridge, MA
  • Lester A. Hoel, Ph.D., Hamilton Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
  • Robert J. Huggett, Ph.D., Assistant Administrator for Research and Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC
  • John A. Kleppe, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, NV
  • Thomas E. Lovejoy, Ph.D., Counselor to the Secretary of Biodiversity and Environmental Affairs, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC