Accolades for Dr. Sawan in China

For years, brain-computer interface belonged to the realm of science fiction, a distant fantasy of minds communicating directly with machines. But for Professor Mohamad Sawan, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Engineering, this vision has been the focus of a lifetime of research.
In 2018, he made a decision that surprised many: he left his established career in Canada to join Westlake University in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, east China, as a chair professor of microsystems and bioengineering and the founding director of the CenBRAIN Neurotech Center of Excellence. Eight years on, he sees that move as an inevitable step toward the future.
Sawan's path to China was not impulsive. Born in Lebanon and educated in Canada, he brought a naturally cross-cultural outlook to his work. For more than two decades, he visited China frequently for academic exchanges, yet those trips always felt too brief. Beneath his professional curiosity lay a deeper question: How is this ancient civilization now reclaiming its global standing with such speed?
When the invitation from Westlake University arrived, he felt it was almost destined. He had long dreamed of coming to China, and the offer struck him as tailor-made for his ambitions. He believed sci-tech innovation was growing very fast everywhere in China, and the future belonged to it. He wanted to be part of that future... (continue reading...)