Head of the Conformable Decoders group is redefining what it means to design technology that truly fits the human body.

Congratulations to Media Arts and Sciences Associate Professor Canan Dagdeviren, who has been granted tenure, effective July 1, 2026. Professor Dagdeviren is the founder and director of the Conformable Decoders research group at the MIT Media Lab, and faculty lead of the MIT Media Lab's WHx Women's Health Program, which this year became an official program of the MIT HEALS Initiative.

Professor Dagdeviren has built a research program rooted in a simple but powerful idea: that the human body continuously produces coded physical patterns through motion, pressure, sound, electrical activity, and biochemical change, and that carefully designed materials and devices can decode these patterns to improve human health. Her Conformable Decoders group develops technologies that bend and conform to the body, translating these signals into treatment, diagnosis, and even usable energy. Among her most recognized contributions is a wearable ultrasound breast patch, inspired in part by the loss of her aunt to breast cancer, that enables more frequent and accessible screening between clinical visits. Her ImPULS device, an implantable piezoelectric ultrasound stimulator, offers a promising new approach to deep brain stimulation for conditions including Parkinson's disease, depression, and Alzheimer's disease.

"We are delighted to welcome Canan Dagdeviren as a tenured member of our faculty," notes Professor Tod Machover, Faculty Director of the MIT Media Lab. "Her research is technically brilliant, medically impactful, and motivated by her deep concern – heightened through personal experience – for improving human health and wellbeing. Canan’s passionate leadership has built and inspired her Conformable Decoders research group to advance the frontier of flexible and conformable electronics while keeping the needs of real patients at the center of every design decision. We look forward to her continued contributions – in science, in design, and in research leadership – for many years to come."

Professor Dagdeviren's leadership of WHx reflects an equally strong commitment to addressing longstanding gaps in women's health through bold, cross-disciplinary research. Through its Enabling Grants program, WHx supports a growing portfolio of women's health projects across the Media Lab, and its elevation to the MIT HEALS Initiative marks a significant institutional recognition of that work.

"Canan's research exemplifies the kind of scholarship the MAS program exists to cultivate," notes Joe Paradiso, Academic Head of the MAS Program. "She brings together materials science, biomedical engineering, and a deep understanding of how the body actually works to create technologies that are both scientifically novel and clinically meaningful. Her work on conformable electronics has opened new territory, and her leadership of WHx demonstrates an equally serious commitment to ensuring that innovation reaches those who need it most."

Prior to joining MIT, Professor Dagdeviren was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows and conducted postdoctoral research at the MIT David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. She earned her PhD in materials science and engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, her MS from Sabanci University, and her BS in physics and engineering from Hacettepe University in Ankara. Her honors include the 2026 Nature Awards Healthspan Accelerator, induction into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows (2026), the Frank E. Perkins Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising (2025), the BBC 100 Women list (2023), MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35, and Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science.