Keesey awarded 2026 James L. O'Leary Prize
BME graduate student honored for excellence in neuroscience research at WashU
Rodolfo Keesey, a graduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering, has been awarded the 2026 James L. O’Leary Prize for Research in Neuroscience. He is the first engineering graduate student to win the award since 2004, when Eric C. Leuthardt, MD, the Shi H. Huang Professor of Neurological Surgery at WashU Medicine and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in McKelvey Engineering, received the award as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Dan Moran, professor of biomedical engineering.
Keesey conducts research in the lab of Ismael Seáñez, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, of electrical and systems engineering and of neurosurgery at WashU Medicine. The Seáñez Lab develops neuro-rehabilitation tools and programs that promote active use of residual mobility to maximize recovery and improve the quality of life of individuals with neurological disorders. Specifically, the group uses advanced human neurophysiology methods to uncover the neural mechanisms by which neuroprosthetics can improve motor and sensory function.
Keesey was one of two researchers to receive the award, which was designed to acknowledge the most original and important accomplishments in neuroscience research at WashU by a predoctoral student or postdoctoral fellow. The second recipient, Kyungdeok Kim, is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Jonathan Kipnis, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Immunology at WashU Medicine.
