John A. White

Professor and Chairman of Biomedical Engineering

John A. White is the Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. He was born and raised in northern Louisiana. Both of his parents are retired educators. White received his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University and his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. After brief stints of postdoctoral work at the University of Texas Medical School, Houston, and the University of Iowa, White joined the faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University, where he served for 13 years before joining the University of Utah in 2007. He moved back to BU to take the Chair's job in 2015.

White’s research focuses on the mechanistic bases of spatially and temporally coherent electrical activity in the brain, as well as the bases of neuronal information processing. His approach blends technology development, electrophysiology, computational modeling, and imaging. The goal is to develop new treatments for memory disorders and epilepsy, based on novel applications of electronic technology and methods of analysis from applied mathematics and engineering.

White has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers. As principal or co-principal investigator, he has raised over $50 million in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, private foundations, and other sources. He is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the Biomedical Engineering Society, and the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering. In 2019, White was elected President of the Biomedical Engineering Society.