Polina Anikeeva

Polina Anikeeva was born in Leningrad, USSR, and grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia. She got her BS in physics from St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University in 2003, and then spent a year as a researcher at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico working on solar cells composed of semiconductor nanocrystals.

She completed her PhD in materials science at MIT in 2009 with her thesis dedicated to physics-driven design of light-emitting devices based on organic materials and quantum dots. Her curiosity in biology led her to a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience and bioengineering at Stanford University, where she began creating optoelectronic devices for recording and stimulation of neural activity.

In 2011, Anikeeva returned to MIT as an assistant professor in materials science and engineering and became the associate director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics. She became an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences and an associate member of the McGovern Institute in 2018. In 2022, she became the director of the newly launched K. Lisa Yang Brain-Body Center at MIT, where she directs research into the neural pathways beyond the brain. In 2024, she was named head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT.

Awards

• 2022 – Matoula S. Salapatas Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, MIT
• 2022 – Future Founders Prize, MIT
• 2021 – NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, National Institutes of Health
• 2020 – MacVicar Faculty Fellow, MIT
• 2019 – MITx Prize for Teaching and Learning in MOOCs, MIT
• 2018 – Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, Vilcek Foundation
• 2015 – Junior Bose Teaching Award, School of Engineering, MIT
• 2015 – Top Innovator Under 35, Technology Review
• 2014 – Outstanding Faculty Undergraduate Research (UROP) Mentor, MIT
• 2013 – Mildred Dresselhaus Prize, MIT
• 2013 – Young Faculty Award, DARPA
• 2013 – NSF CAREER Award, National Science Foundation