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Flavio Frohlich, PhD

UNC - Chapel Hill

Plenary Speaker

Flavio Frohlich, PhD, is Professor of Psychiatry and Cell Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he serves as Associate Vice Chair for Research and Director of the Carolina Center for Neurostimulation. His intellectual journey traces an arc from electrical engineering at ETH Zurich through computational neuroscience at Imperial College London and UC San Diego - a trajectory that shaped his foundational insight that the brain is, above all, an electrical system governed by rhythm. Early in his career, he made teh breakthrough discovery that electric fields generated by neural activity feed back onto neurons to shape their own firing. Based on this discovery of the role of rhythmic electric fields in neuronal synchronization, he developed closed-loop stimulation for the modulation of brain rhythms as a platform therapeutic for psychiatric and neurological disorders associated with disordered rhythmic organization of brain activity. His work has been recognized by numerous prizes and awards, including the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and a textbook on network neuroscience, and holds multiple patents on brain stimulation technology. His research on closed-loop transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) has yielded some of the most promising response rates in treatment-resistant depression seen in the field, advancing into a pivotal clinical trial. He founded Pulvinar Neuro to translate this work clinically; following its acquisition, the company received FDA Breakthrough Device designation. He is also co-founder of Qortical Clinical Partners, a boutique clinical research organization specializing in neurotechnology trials, and founder of Flavio Labs, an executive coaching and knowledge venture bridging neuroscience and human performance. Currently training as a clinical psychologist specializing in couples-based approaches and sex therapy, Dr. Frohlich embodies a rare integration of engineering rigor, translational neuroscience, and deep clinical humanity - making him one of the field's most distinctive voices at the intersection of brain rhythms, technology, and healing.