Christian Wentz earned a M.Eng in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a B.S. in Electrical Science and Engineering at MIT, where his research with the Synthetic Neurobiology Group focused on the development of new tools for understanding brain function using novel techniques in low power and mixed signal circuit design, and exploration of hybrid device/biologics therapies for neurological disease.
Wentz was nominated to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Science & Innovation (2011). He has filed 6 patents and authored or coauthored several journal and conference papers in neuroscience and mixed-signal integrated circuits and systems. He started at Harvard-MIT Division of Health and Science Technology 2012 to pursue research toward the development and application of large-scale neural circuit screening.
Wentz is founder/CEO of Kendall Research Systems, an optogenetics technology firm serving academic researchers and major pharmaceutical companies worldwide. He previously co-founded Cerenova, Inc., an implantable neurological device spin-out from the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Neurosurgery. His goal is to develop tools to understand how the brain gives rise to consciousness, what is the ‘stuff’ we lose when the brain malfunctions, and how engineers might restore what is lost.