Christopher Hasson

Christopher Hasson’s research aims to make physical rehabilitation better by understanding how the brain learns to move the body and how robots might speed up this process. While robotics has enormous potential to aid rehabilitation, many obstacles must be overcome to achieve good rehabilitation outcomes. For example, people naturally come to rely on help from a robot, which defeats the purpose of rehabilitation, which is to have people regain the capacity for independent living. Although the engineering of rehabilitation robotics has become quite advanced, we still do not fully understand the motor learning processes involved–this is the gap that Christopher’s research aims to fill–using a transdisciplinary approach that operates at the intersection of neuroscience, engineering, rehabilitation, and psychology.

Christopher is an associate professor of physical therapy, movement, and rehabilitation sciences at Northeastern University, US, where he directs the Neuromotor Systems Laboratory. He earned his bachelor of science at the University of Delaware, master of science at Ball State University, and doctorate in kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.