Finding His Niche

Hooshang Hemami’s love affair with engineering was sparked at a young age, quite literally, when he progressed from making his own toys to conducting his first electrical experiment.

"I was fascinated by the [light] switches. I asked everybody, ‘What goes on in this switch?’ but nobody could tell me. So I said, ‘I’ll do an experiment,’ " says Hemami, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. "If you remember the light voltage in Iran is 220 volts, 50 cycles. So, I went to the kitchen, took the light bulb out, put my hand in there and turned the switch on. Fortunately, it threw me about five feet, breaking the connection."

This, however, was not the last of the young Hemami’s experiments.

"My curiosity got me into trouble. I destroyed so many things in the house, I opened them and couldn’t put them back together," he says with a laugh. "Even now when I open something there is a 50 percent chance I’ll fix it and a 50 percent chance that it will be destroyed."

Finding an outlet for his curiosity was a major consideration in Hemami’s choice of career. Following the realization that he was too squeamish for his first choice – a career in medicine – Hemami earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical and mechanical engineering from the University of Tehran.

Hemami moved to the U.S. in 1958, where he received a master’s degree from MIT and worked in industry for two years before coming to Ohio State in 1965 to pursue a PhD. He has remained at Ohio State ever since and recently celebrated his 46th year of teaching.

"For me, Ohio State has been a wonderful environment, with all this energy of the young people and the idealism that is here," he says.

After coming to the U.S., he realized he could combine his interests in medicine and engineering, and use computers to conduct research about the human body.

"My research area is very difficult. It’s not glamorous or easily accessible," Hemami explains. "I thought, if I pick out an area like that, it will consume all the energy I have and satisfy my curiosity and stubbornness."

The goal of his research is to understand the central nervous system as it pertains to human movement. He hopes that ultimately his research can be used to make life easier for people with spinal cord injuries.

"I would say someday, maybe 20 or 30 years from now, we may be able to have a spinal cord outside the body and feed it from brain signals and use it as an intermediary between the brain and the body," Hemami says.

With such a time-consuming profession, Hemami credits his interests outside of engineering with being critical to his success as a scientist. He is an avid painter, a lover of classical music, and remains active by playing soccer and bicycling.

"When I have had physical activity, I think better, I see better, I make less programming errors," says Hemami. "Painting has also been a sort of complement to my work, because my work is very directed. Things have to work, make sense, be stable, be believable. I don’t have any of these constraints when I paint."

Hemami estimates that he has completed more than 1,500 works of art, mostly abstracts, since he began painting in the early 1980s. With no formal training, he chose to work with oil paints, which he feels are a more forgivable medium.

"I needed painting to get away from work, but at the same time I realized I needed it for other energies that are dormant. The paintings help me to understand what’s going on inside."