Hugh Herr

The K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics at MIT pioneers bionic technology designed to mitigate disability across a broad range of conditions affecting the body and mind. Critical to the Center’s mission is to increase accessibility of assistive technology within geographical regions for which access has historically been limited. To this end, we recently signed an important memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the government of Sierra Leone. From educational services, to supply chain, to new technology, this MOU will enable the Center to develop a broad, integrative approach to the orthotic and prosthetic sector within Sierra Leone, strengthening services and restoring much-needed care to its citizens. In this photo, I’m holding the signed MOU alongside the Sierra Leone leadership and members of the MIT team.

From the left: Dara Dotz – MIT Field Coordinator; Francesca Riccio-Ackerman -- MIT Graduate Student Lead; Dr. Demby -- Minister of Health and Sanitation; Professor Hugh Herr – Director of the MIT Sierra Leone Prosthetic and Orthotics Program; His Excellency Dr. Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone; Dr. Kebbie – Program Manager of the National Rehabilitation Program; Dr. Sengeh -- Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education; Ellen Clarrissimeaux – MIT Program Manager; Adikalie Kamara – MIT Liaison and Clinical Administrator for the National Rehabilitation Center.

MIT News Link: https://news.mit.edu/2023/collaboration-strengthen-orthotic-prosthetic-care-sierra-leone-0203

It was a delight to host the incomparable Robert Downey Jr for our bionics center launch and to showcase the incredible work happening in the labs of Hugh Herr, Ed Boyden, Canan Dagdeviren Mercan and Deblina Sarkar. (We’ll do our best to get you that honorary MIT degree, Tony Stark!)

It's an honor to take part in the Liberty Science Center Genius Gala 10. Details below.

Liberty Science Center’s Genius Gala 10, an annual celebration of science and creativity, will take place on May 2, 2022!

One of our honorees this year is biomechatronics pioneer Hugh Herr. Biomechatronic technology combines human physiology and electromechanical devices. Called the “Leader of the Bionic Age” by Time magazine, Hugh Herr is co-founder of the K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Herr’s research group is building the next generation of smart, microprocessor-laden prosthetic knees, legs, and ankles. A double amputee himself (he lost his legs below his knees to frostbite after a teenage mountaineering accident), Herr has devoted his working life to restoring mobility to the physically challenged.

“Remove technology,” Herr says, “and I am imprisoned. All I can do is crawl. But with it, I am free.”

Herr’s smart biohybrid prosthetics aim not only to restore normal physicality but to enhance human mobility beyond innate physiological levels, enabling people to walk and run faster and jump higher while expending less metabolic energy.

His work raises provocative questions about able-bodied individuals choosing to be bionic and making those decisions for their children. Herr, for one, welcomes a biotechnological world where physical disability is no more and every person has wide choice over their physicality and can transcend their innate biology if they want to.

Learn more about our 10th anniversary of the Genius Gala at lsc.org/gala.

So thrilled to be a part of this experience. 👇

'New bionics center established at MIT with $24 million gift

Interdisciplinary research center funded by philanthropist Lisa Yang aims to mitigate disability through technologies that marry human physiology with electromechanics.

The center will be led by Hugh Herr, a professor of media arts and sciences at MIT Media Lab , and Ed Boyden, the Y. Eva Tan Professor of Neurotechnology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) , a professor of biological engineering, brain and cognitive sciences, and media arts and sciences, and an investigator at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
A double amputee himself, Herr is a pioneer in the development of bionic limbs to improve mobility for those with physical disabilities.“The world profoundly needs relief from the disabilities imposed by today’s nonexistent or broken technologies. We must continually strive towards a technological future in which disability is no longer a common life experience,” says Herr. “I am thrilled that the Yang Center for Bionics will help to measurably improve the human experience for so many.”'

https://news.mit.edu/2021/new-bionics-center-established-mit-24-million-gift-0923

New bionics center established at MIT with $24 million gift The new K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics at MIT, made possible by a $24 million gift from philanthropist Lisa Yang, is pushing forward the development and deployment of enabling technologies that communicate directly with the nervous system to mitigate a broad range of disabilities.

A 3D-printed prosthetic socket designed for function offers an appealing form. As in Nature, form emerges from exquisite function and function from exquisite form.

Photographer Olivia Arthur visited my Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) lab recently in her quest to capture how technology is extending and elevating our bodies. See her wonderful TED talk here: https://www.ted.com/talks/olivia_arthur_meditations_at_the_intersection_of_humanity_and_technology

I am deeply honored that a USPS Stamps Forever stamp has been created to celebrate technologically advanced robotic prostheses developed by my MIT Biomechatronics Group. Through the marriage of human physiology and robotics, persons with leg amputation can now walk with powered prostheses that emulate the biological leg. By integrating synthetic sensors, artificial computation, and muscle-like actuation, these technologies are already improving people’s lives in profound ways.

Imagining body alchemy

Aimee Mullins’ legs designed by the late Alexander McQueen

Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold visited my MIT Media Lab where we discussed bionic bodies and the future of sport. Good fun!

My new TED talk was released on May 30th. See https://www.ted.com/talks/hugh_herr_how_we_ll_become_cyborgs_and_extend_human_potential/up-next. ————————————————

Extreme function. Extreme form. Extreme fashion.

Prostheses I designed for ice climbing, circa 1983.
Photo by Hans Herr.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and my various companies, we are designing electromechanical body parts, an exercise that requires a never-ending design flow between form and function. When designing one's own body, or others’ bodies, one seeks an aesthetically interesting form while also deriving a collaborative marriage to its mechanical, electrical, and chemical function. Shown here is the BionX emPOWER Ankle System, the first ankle-foot prosthesis to emulate lost muscle function, supplying more mechanical energy to its user than it absorbs.

"Item: Is Fashion Modern?" exhibition. MoMA The Museum of Modern Art Custom one-of-a-kind gold shift dress made from protein-based silk designed by Stella McCartney

"Items: Is Fashion Modern?" Exhibition MoMA The Museum of Modern Art Alexander McQueen
platforms

I recently went to the opening of "Items: Is Fashion Modern?" by Paola Antonelli and Michelle Millar Fisher at MoMA The Museum of Modern Art
It is a must-see if you happen to be in New York prior to January 28th when the exhibition closes.

Where are my cigar and martini? 🍸

Aimee Mullins and I at the MIT Media Lab conference: Human 2.0: New Minds, New Bodies, New Identities.

I am climbing an artificial wall, while Aimee Mullins looks on. Aimee is wearing ash wood legs designed by fashion designer Alexander McQueen

Towards the goal of developing more comfortable, better-fitting wearable devices such as shoes, exoskeletons, and prostheses, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Extreme Bionics is advancing tools that measure the soft-tissue properties of a human limb. We accomplish this using a robotic palpation measurement device called the FitSocket that directly measures tissue biomechanics. With these data, we digitally design and manufacture comfortable biomechanical interfaces that connect wearable devices with the human body.

One of the oldest prosthetic devices ever found. An ancient Egyptian prosthetic toe circa 1000 BC enabled a priest's daughter to walk. Made of wood and plant fibers, this anthropomorphic prosthesis was designed to be worn with sandals, common footwear at the time. The prosthesis was still attached to the woman's skeleton when discovered in 1997. Photo and info CNN

How much have prostheses improved in 3000 years? Their progress has been glacial across the millennia, but now in this modern era of bionics improvement rates are precipitous.

The feet of McNeill Alexander, Andy Ruina, and Hugh Herr. The great biomechanist McNeill Alexander passed away in 2016.
Photo taken June 2007, at the Dynamic Walking Conference Åland islands in the Baltic Sea

Where's Waldo?

Photo by Matthew Septimus