Edward Chang, MD, professor and chair of Neurological Surgery at UC San Francisco (UCSF), has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors bestowed on American scientists.
He was honored for his transformative research into how the human brain perceives and produces speech. His team identified a neural code for spoken words, including the elemental components of consonants, vowels, and prosody, and how these relate to both auditory perception and vocal motor control. These insights have reshaped fundamental understanding of the neural basis of speech.
Chang’s discoveries laid the foundation for the first successful speech neuroprosthesis, enabling communication for individuals with severe paralysis and speech loss. In a landmark 2021 study, his team decoded full words and sentences from the brain activity of a man who had been unable to speak for over 15 years due to a brainstem stroke. Their ongoing work now enables real-time synthesis of audible speech directly from brain recordings.
Chang is one of the only neurosurgeons to have been elected to the NAS, joining pioneers of the field, including Harvey Cushing and Wilder Penfield. This is a historic milestone that underscores his pioneering work at the intersection of neuroscience, medicine, and technology.
Chang was previously elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2020.
Founded in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences provides independent, objective scientific advice to the U.S. government. In 2025, the Academy elected only 120 new members.
“I’m deeply honored to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences,” said Dr. Chang. “This recognition reflects the incredible dedication of my research team, the inspiration of our patients, and the collaborative environment at UCSF that makes this work possible.”
