Welcome, Readers!
By Nitish Thakor
Welcome to The July 2012 issue of the Life Sciences Newsletter! We hope that you have already subscribed or will subscribe to the Newsletter so you can receive our articles on a regular basis. We also urge you to inform your colleagues about this exciting Newsletter that is linked to the IEEE Life Sciences Portal. Read on for an overview of this issue’s content.
This month we feature an interview with Pierre E. DuPont, Staff Scientist, Cardiovascular Surgery; and Chief, Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering, at Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA USA. Dr. DuPont discusses the importance of collaboration between life scientists and technicians. He also offers his view on future developments in his field.
Microwave applications in the field of life sciences is a growing area. Rajeev Bansal, Head of the department of Electrical & Computer Engineering of the University of Connecticut provides his perspective on these advances, as evidenced in recent conferences.
There have lately been dramatic advances toward the goal of restoring the ability to walk to people suffering spinal injury. This issue, a research team reports on progress made toward that goal, using intraspinal stimulation.
Lastly, we review the progress in the development and use of medical apps in mobile devices. Medical professionals are using these apps in everyday practice.
We look forward to your active participation in this Newsletter. We hope that many of you will send us your comments and suggestions and submit cutting-edge scientific news stories, share emerging technologies, discoveries and breakthroughs for possible publication in future issues. Send them to us at lsnews@ieee.org.
Nitish Thakor, Editor-In-Chief
Lee Moffitt, Managing Editor
lsnews@ieee.org
Pierre DuPont is Staff Scientist, Cardiovascular Surgery; and Chief, Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering, at Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA USA. 
Rajeev Bansal received his PhD in Applied Physics from Harvard University in 1981. Since then he has taught and conducted research in the area of applied electromagnetics at the University of Connecticut. 
Kevin Mazurek is a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, working on his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering. 
Bradley J. Holinski is currently a graduate student in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Alberta. He obtained a BSc. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Albeta in 2007. 
Dirk G. Everaert received his undergraduate degree in physical therapy from the University of Leuven, Belgium, in 1989. 
Richard B. Stein (DPhil, Physiology, Oxford University, Oxford UK, 1966) is currently a Research Professor of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada and co-director of the Rehabilitation Neuroscience Group. 
Vivian K. Mushahwar received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, in 1991, and a Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, in 1996. 
Ralph Etienne-Cummings received a B.Sc. degree in physics from Lincoln University, Oxford, PA, in 1988, and M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.