John-Ross Rizzo

Last updated
John-Ross(JR) Rizzo
JohnRoss Rizzo.jpg
Rizzo pictured at United Nation
Alma mater New York University
Employer NYU Langone Health
Known for Assistive technology, Eye–hand coordination, Rehabilitation Medicine, Neurology, Ophthalmology, Biomedical Engineering, Disability Studies, Human–Computer Interaction
Website JohnRoss Rizzo-NYU School of Medicine, RizzoLab

John-Ross (JR) Rizzo, M.D.,M.S.C.I, F.A.C.R.M is an American physician-scientist-leader, disability and rehabilitation authority, and inclusion advocate whose work bridges basic neuroscience, computational motor control, clinical rehabilitation, biomedical engineering, and disability policy. His scholarly program connects foundational theories of visuomotor integration and sensorimotor learning with translational approaches in assistive technology, mobile health, and universal design. Rizzo is widely recognized as a national leader in disability health equity, accessible transportation, and technology-enabled support systems for individuals with blindness, low vision, and other sensory-motor disabilities.

Contents

Early life and education

As a young boy Rizzo was diagnosed with Choroideremia — a congenital, X-linked, recessive disease of the retina and choroid, associated with nyctalopia and degenerative peripheral vision.

Rizzo completed his undergraduate degree at New York University with an honors thesis in neural science and a double minor in chemistry and psychology. He was a Dean's Scholar and received the Founders Day Award. He completed his medical school training on an academic scholarship at New York Medical College Alpha Omega Alpha (Iota Chapter) Honors and conducted medical student research in neuro-ophthalmology under the tutelage of Prof. Sansar Sharma. His residency was completed at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine. At New York University School of Medicine, where he completed a Chief Year and was selected for leadership positions. His fellowship was completed in clinical research through the Physician Scientist Training Program at New York University School of Medicine’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) under a grant from the NIH (NCATS) in partnership with Rusk and the NYU Center for Neural Science / Dept. of Psychology under Prof. Michael S. Landy.

Career

Academic and Clinical Leadership

Rizzo has been a faculty member at NYU Langone Medical Center since 2013 and serves as the Ilse Melamid Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine, Neurology, and Ophthalmology with tenure. He is the inaugural Vice Chair for Health Equity and Innovation in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and NYU Langone’s Health System Director for Enterprise Accessibility, where he directs institutional strategies, research programs, and clinical operations initiatives that integrate universal design, accessible care pathways, and disability workforce equity into the health system. [1] [2] His research explores how eye control intersects with hand control during eye-hand coordination after acquired brain injury (ABI) and the role of vision and eye movements in hand-focused motor recovery. He also focuses on leveraging technology to objectify accepted clinical measures, instrument the medical ecosystem to improve medical science, and create assistive technologies that foster functional independence. [1] In addition to his roles at NYU Langone, Rizzo holds appointments at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, where he contributes to the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and serves as associate director of healthcare for the NYU WIRELESS research center within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. [3] [4]

Public Service, Policy Impact, and Board Leadership

In 2023, Rizzo was appointed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul to the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), becoming the first member appointed under statute 5069 to represent riders who are transit-dependent due to disability. [5] In this role, his work focuses on accessible infrastructure, modernization strategies for blind/low-vision and Deaf/hard-of-hearing riders, and broader mobility equity efforts across the transit system. Rizzo also serves on the boards of City Access New York and VISIONS, and has held national advisory roles with organizations including the Foundation Fighting Blindness, the National Academies’ LivedX Initiative, VisionServe Alliance, and Lighthouse Guild. [6] [7]

Research Program

Rizzo’s research portfolio integrates multimodal methodologies from neuroscience, biomechanics,human–computer interaction, and data science, with a focus on how humans sense, perceive, and act in constrained or degraded sensory environments and how technology can augment or restore functional independence.His research has been supported by the NIH, NSF, Department of Defense, PCORI, Department of Transportation, and major foundation, corporate, and municipal partners. His portfolio includes nearly 50 grants (awarded or pending), representing more than US$70 million in cumulative project costs. [1] Rizzo has authored approximately 200 publications, delivered more than 300 invited presentations, and mentors 25–30 trainees annually across engineering, neuroscience, medicine, and rehabilitation fields. He is the founding director of two laboratories:

Visuomotor Integration Laboratory (VMIL) – Focused on fundamental research in sensorimotor neuroscience and the neural and behavioral underpinnings of visuomotor coordination, with applications to stroke and other acquired neurological conditions. [8]

Rehabilitation Engineering Alliance & Center Transforming Interactions and Vision Laboratory (REACTIV) – A translational engineering hub advancing assistive technology for blind and low-vision users, including wearable navigation supports, haptic mobility aids, and multimodal perception systems that integrate computer vision, spatial mapping, and machine learning. [9]

His research program encompasses several interrelated domains:

Visuomotor neuroscience and visuomotor integration– Examining the neural architecture of eye–hand coordination, perceptual–motor coupling, and adaptive control in both healthy populations and individuals with neurological injury, contributing to broader questions in sensorimotor neuroscience and the dynamics of human movement. [10] [11] [12]

Blind biomechanics and nonvisual mobility – Characterizing gait, balance, obstacle negotiation, and spatial orientation strategies in individuals with blindness or low vision, expanding biomechanics to include nonvisual locomotion models and informing novel mobility-support technologies.

Assistive technology usability and human–technology interaction – Investigating the design, adoption, learning curves, and real-world integration of rehabilitation and orientation-and-mobility technologies, with an emphasis on user-centered and disability-centered design, usability, accessibility, and cognitive load. [13] [14] [15]

Wearable and AI-enabled rehabilitation technologies – Developing haptic interfaces, spatial-intelligence systems, eye-tracking biomarkers, and machine-learning models for predicting movement efficiency, wayfinding performance, and neurological impairment. [16] [17] Disability health services research and universal design – Studying structural inequities in healthcare access, digital accessibility, and environmental design, and advancing system-level models that embed accessibility as a foundational element of population health, quality, and safety.

Awards

He was awarded the Crain’s 40 under 40 award in New York Business for his wearable technology. [18] In 2016, he was named a “Healthcare Re-writer” by Forbes and KPMG. [19] In 2018, he was a speaker in NYU's TEDx “Re-Vision” Series. [20] In 2018, the ACRM recognized Rizzo for contributions to the field, and he received the Deborah L. Wilkerson Early Career Award. [21] In 2019, he was inducted into the Susan Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame, which honors contributions to the lives of youth and adults with disabilities. [22] He is also a recipient of the Rusk Leadership & Innovation Award. [23]

Selected bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 3 Rizzo, John-Ross. "JohnRoss Rizzo, MD — NYU Grossman School of Medicine Faculty Profile". NYU Langone Health. NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Retrieved 2025-12-08.
  2. ↑ Rizzo, John-Ross. "JohnRoss Rizzo, MD — NYU Grossman School of Medicine Faculty Profile". NYU Langone Health. Institute for Excellence in Health Equity Leadership & Faculty.
  3. ↑ "NYU Tandon School of Engineering". engineering.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2023-09-20.
  4. ↑ "NYU Tandon School of Engineering".
  5. ↑ "John-Ross "JR" Rizzo Joins MTA Board as MTA Board Finance Committee Chair Neal Zuckerman Is Reconfirmed". MTA. Retrieved 2023-09-20.
  6. ↑ "Board of Directors – About – VisionServe Alliance". VisionServe Alliance. VisionServe Alliance. Retrieved 2025-12-08.
  7. ↑ "Board of Directors". Lighthouse Guild. Lighthouse Guild. Retrieved 2025-12-08.
  8. ↑ https://med.nyu.edu/departments-institutes/rusk-rehabilitation/research/eye-hand-coordination
  9. ↑ https://med.nyu.edu/departments-institutes/rusk-rehabilitation/research/assistive-technology
  10. ↑ Rizzo, J. R.; Fung, J. K.; Hosseini, M.; Shafieesabet, A.; Ahdoot, E.; Pasculli, R. M.; Rucker, J. C.; Raghavan, P.; Landy, M. S.; Hudson, T. E. (2017). "Eye Control Deficits Coupled to Hand Control Deficits: Eye-Hand Incoordination in Chronic Cerebral Injury". Frontiers in Neurology. 8: 330. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2017.00330 . PMC   5512342 . PMID   28769866.
  11. ↑ Beheshti, M.; Hudson, T. E.; Rizzo, J. R. (2020). "What's the Deal with Eye-Hand Coordination Post-stroke?". American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. 99 (10): 968–969. doi: 10.1097/PHM.0000000000001497 . PMID   32541349.
  12. ↑ Rizzo, J. R.; Beheshti, M.; Shafieesabet, A.; Fung, J.; Hosseini, M.; Rucker, J. C.; Snyder, L. H.; Hudson, T. E. (2019). "Eye-hand re-coordination: A pilot investigation of gaze and reach biofeedback in chronic stroke". Mathematical Modelling in Motor Neuroscience: State of the Art and Translation to the Clinic. Gaze Orienting Mechanisms and Disease. Progress in Brain Research. Vol. 249. pp. 361–374. doi:10.1016/bs.pbr.2019.04.013. ISBN   9780444642547. PMID   31325995. S2CID   198135621.
  13. ↑ Boldini, Alain; Rizzo, Johnross; Porfiri, Maurizio (2020). "A piezoelectric-based advanced wearable: Obstacle avoidance for the visually impaired built into a backpack". In Kim, Jaehwan (ed.). Nano-, Bio-, Info-Tech Sensors, and 3D Systems IV. p. 5. doi:10.1117/12.2558306. ISBN   9781510635333. S2CID   218981869.
  14. ↑ "An assistive low-vision platform that augments spatial cognition through proprioceptive guidance: Point-to-Tell-and-Touch" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-10-31.
  15. ↑ Li, Xiang; Cui, Hanzhang; Rizzo, John-Ross; Wong, Edward; Fang, Yi (2020). "Cross-Safe: A Computer Vision-Based Approach to Make All Intersection-Related Pedestrian Signals Accessible for the Visually Impaired". Advances in Computer Vision. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. Vol. 944. pp. 132–146. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-17798-0_13. ISBN   978-3-030-17797-3. S2CID   182681355.
  16. ↑ "NYU Tandon School of Engineering". engineering.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2024-12-16.
  17. ↑ "NYU Tandon School of Engineering". engineering.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  18. ↑ "40 Under 40 - John Ross Rizzo". Crain's New York Business. 6 July 2018.
  19. ↑ Melin, Anders. "Hope In Sight For Visually Impaired". Forbes.com.
  20. ↑ "TEDxNYU: Re-Vision". Tedxnyu.com.
  21. ↑ "EARLY CAREER OUTSTANDING MENTOR AWARD". Archived from the original on 2019-07-20. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
  22. ↑ "Partners for Youth with Disabilities". Partners for Youth with Disabilities.
  23. ↑ "Rusk 75th Anniversary, Research Symposium" (PDF).
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