Be the first to hear about the University of South Carolina’s (USC) bold vision for transforming neurological care and research in South Carolina at the next SCbio Breakfast and Bio. Julius Fridriksson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, vice president for research at the University of South Carolina, will highlight how this initiative builds upon the institution’s existing brain health network.
At the heart of this vision is the new Brain Health Center and the recently announced Neuroscience Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, currently under development as part of USC’s upcoming Health Sciences Campus, in the Bull Street District. Slated to open in 2026, these facilities will support a growing elderly population and rising rates of neurological disease through state-of-the-art clinical care, interdisciplinary research and education.
Attendees will learn how this initiative builds upon USC’s existing Brain Health Network to create a “continuum of care,” bridging research, clinical application and long-term rehabilitation. This regional breakfast, sponsored by Dominion Energy, will be held on Thursday, September 4, at 8 a.m. in Columbia.
Fridriksson is an Icelandic-American clinical neuroscientist and internationally recognized leader in the study of brain-language relationships. With over 250 peer-reviewed publications and more than $50 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, including four NIH-classified clinical trials, his work has redefined the scientific understanding of aphasia, stroke recovery and the neural architecture of human communication. His research combines high-resolution neuroimaging, clinical trials and computational modeling to develop brain-based therapies that have improved the lives of thousands of patients with language and cognitive disorders.
Fridriksson built his research portfolio from the ground up, studying post-stroke neuroscience and managing a growing, thriving team of researchers. A primary driver of this work is the interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Aphasia Recovery (C-STAR). Collaboration is at the heart of C-STAR’s mission. The center focuses on four projects, including two at USC, one at Johns Hopkins University and one at the University of California, Irvine. Each project examines a different aspect of aphasia, a communication disorder characterized by difficulty understanding and/or generating speech that results from damage to the left hemisphere of the brain, often caused by a stroke.
As a prominent member of the USC research community for over two decades, Fridriksson oversees a growing research enterprise across science, health, engineering and technology. He has served as a faculty member in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the Arnold School of Public Health since 2001 and as SmartState Endowed Chair of Memory and Brain Function, directing the SMARTBrain™ Center since 2016. He also co-directs the cutting-edge USC McCausland Center for Brain Imaging.
Fridriksson holds a doctorate in philosophy, speech and hearing sciences, with a minor in statistics from the University of Arizona.