For many in rural America, higher education feels like a distant dream — only one in four adults earns a bachelor’s degree, compared to 37% of suburban and urban populations. The economic consequences of this gap are significant: A college graduate can expect to earn approximately 84% more than those without a degree, creating a divide in opportunity across U.S. geography.
Chris Rozell, Julian T. Hightower chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech, has experienced this dichotomy firsthand. Rozell grew up in rural Michigan in a blue-collar, service-oriented town. His mother was a hostess, and his father was an HVAC technician. Neither had a bachelor’s degree.
Few in his town went to college, and fewer left the immediate area to do so. Though his family had little idea of how to help and had no financial ability to pay for it, they always assumed that Rozell would go on to pursue higher education in some form. Based in large part on connections he made through his involvement in the arts, Rozell found his way to the state flagship, the University of Michigan.
“Teachers and family members were determined not to let a kid like me fall through the cracks,” said Rozell. “Even if they weren’t sure how exactly to help, they made sure I knew that I had their support when I was trying to figure out what else was out there for me.”
Rozell’s First-Gen Experience
Rozell arrived at the University of Michigan in 1994 to study computer engineering — computers because he had taught himself programming from a library book, and engineering because he had been told he would make a good engineer.
He didn’t have any idea what that degree was, but it sounded interesting and like it would lead to a good job in the future. Financially, he was supported by federal financial aid and a scholarship from his hometown’s railroad equipment company.
College was not without growing pains for Rozell — it was the first time he had been around people from a variety of backgrounds, and he was challenged to find his own identity. However, despite the foreign environment, Rozell found himself more at home than ever before.
“It was the first time I had been around a majority of people who think for a living. My father used to say that you either have a job where you shower before you go to work, or a job where you shower when you get home from work. He used to tell me that you want the job where you shower before you go, and I was seeing that life for the first time.”
Chris Rozell
While Rozell was taking 18-20 credit hours per semester to get his degree in an affordable time frame, he was stopped in his tracks by a friend mentioning a music technology degree to him. Rozell, a gifted musician, found himself intrigued. Despite the extra time and money it tacked on, he had a nagging sensation that having a unique profile of skills would ultimately help him. That led him to auditioning for the music school and taking on a dual major between engineering and the arts.
His music technology degree is what initially sent him to research — he discovered quantitative music research, which then raised additional questions about sensory perception and how the brain worked. He followed that road to graduate school at Rice University, where he continued his education in electrical engineering with a neuroscience focus, receiving his Ph.D. in 2007.
Bringing Interdisciplinary Research to Life
Rozell’s research brought him to Georgia Tech in 2008, where he now works on clinical collaborations to develop and scale brain stimulation therapies to treat chronic psychiatric disorders. This work requires collaboration between scientists, engineers, and clinical teams, all aligned to have impact on one of the most pressing challenges facing society today.
What has become clear through Rozell’s work is that his instinct during his undergraduate education was right — his diversified skill set spanning engineering, arts, and neuroscience are proving to be essential tools in advancing interdisciplinary research.
Beyond the research, that interdisciplinary mindset is also advancing public engagement. In 2023, Rozell served as the scientific lead when Georgia Tech Arts commissioned a dance piece about neurotechnology and ethics that brought over 1,000 visitors to campus.
Now, Rozell is the inaugural director of the Institute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Society, which encourages interdisciplinary research investigating the complexities of the brain.
“We’re leaning into the feeling that I had intuitively in my undergraduate years,” said Rozell. “Which is that the best stuff comes when you are pulling together areas that don’t normally overlap. It is a great privilege to lead this effort and encourage interdisciplinary work on campus.”
The Throughline: Higher Education Transforms
In addition to personal fulfillment, Rozell also emphasized that his journey through higher education is what allowed him to break the cycle of poverty for his family.
“My kids don’t have to think about where their next meal comes from and we don’t have to be afraid of what the future looks like,” he said. “For my children, going to college is expected, and they get to dream of being professionals for a living where they too get to shower before work instead of when they come home.”
Because of higher education, he said, his life was fundamentally changed, as was the entire future trajectory of his family, and the lives of those impacted through his research.
“Higher education set me on a trajectory to be here today, trying to develop new cures for psychiatric disorders that ravage families around the world. There is a clear line from a gift that enabled me to attend a public university, pulling my family out of generational poverty, and leading to the impact we’re having through our research. There truly is no greater tool for social mobility or societal improvement than higher education.”
Chris Rozell
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