Robert L. Savoy PhD

Dr. Savoy received his academic training in applied mathematics at MIT (B.S. 1971; M.S. 1975) and experimental psychology at Harvard University (Ph.D. 1980). This period included 10 years of work at Polaroid Corporation’s Vision Research Laboratory, after which he joined the newly formed Rowland Institute for Science, under the direction of the late Edwin Land, in 1981. In 1991 he first learned of the revolutionary work being conducted at the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Center, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect changes in neural activity (via the associated hemodynamic changes in blood flow, blood volume, and blood oxygenation level dependent (i.e., BOLD) contrast mechanisms).

He currently has appointments at MGH, Harvard University Medical School, Boston University, and is the President of HyperVision Corporation, a teaching and consulting company that conducts workshops on functional brain imaging around the world. Dr. Savoy’s fMRI-based research interests are wide-ranging, including temporal resolution of functional MRI, stereopsis, language, American Sign Language, decision making, multivariate analysis, and dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities).

Dr. Savoy’s primary activity is teaching, although he also conducts some research and is a research consultant for various investigators. In recent years he has developed two additions to the training programs a the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, associated with MGH, MIT, and Harvard.