Simon DIMAIO
Intuitive Surgical, Inc.
Director of Research
Simon DiMaio leads Applied Research projects at Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (Sunnyvale, California), makers of the da Vinci Surgical System – a telerobotic system for minimally-invasive surgery. Simon holds a Ph.D. in robotics and control systems from the University of British Columbia, Canada, where he explored haptics and teleoperation technologies, and then went on to develop some of the very first needle insertion models and novel robotic needle steering methods for medical applications. Prior to moving to Intuitive Surgical, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship and later held an appointment as Instructor of Radiology at the Harvard Medical School, as a member of the Surgical Planning Laboratory (SPL) at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. At the SPL, he developed systems for MRI-compatible medical robots, as well as methods for navigated endoscopy and interventional guidance. In addition to R&D projects at Intuitive, Simon is involved in the development of academic relationships and programs, as well as the exploration of future platforms and applications of robotics and technology in medicine.