Talcott Mountain Academy
Dr. Blaise is an associate professor of engineering and neuroscience at Trinity College, Hartford, CT. He teaches courses as varied as automatic control systems, semiconductor electronics, neural engineering, and computational neuroscience. Dr. Blaise’s research, which has been funded in part by the NSF, NASA, and Trinity, is focused on long-term synaptic plasticity of neuronal networks in the hippocampus (the brain’s learning center), the amygdala (the brain’s emotional center) and the prefrontal cortex (the brain’s decision-making center).
In addition to his passion for teaching and research, Dr. Blaise is a firm proponent of improving the state of science and engineering education in the United States, especially increasing participation of women and underrepresented minority groups in science and engineering.
Recently, Dr. Blaise spearheaded a biomedical engineering teacher-training summer program known as BME4STEM which targeted middle school teachers in the Greater Hartford Area. Middle school teachers were trained in accessible biomedical engineering experiential projects and curricula which they brought back to their students in the middle schools.
Dr. Blaise is a former president of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Pre-Engineering Program (CPEP), and a past advisor to the CT Science Fair. Dr. Blaise came to Trinity from the University of Connecticut (Storrs) where he received a doctorate in biomedical engineering.