Steve Kautz received his Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering from the University of California, Davis in 1992. He also received a master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University. He worked for 10 years as a research scientist at the VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Center in Palo Alto, CA, where he was also adjunct faculty at Stanford University. He then moved to the University of Florida in 2002, where he was first an associate professor, and then a professor in the Department of Physical Therapy. In Gainesville, he also had a joint appointment at the VA Brain Rehabilitation Research Center. Since 2010, he has been a professor and the chair of the Department of Health Sciences and Research and a professor in the Division of Physical Therapy in the College of Health Professions at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC.
Dr. Kautz is a Distinguished University Professor and holds The Christie Family Endowed Chair in Stroke Rehabilitation Research, as well as being a senior research career scientist at the Charleston VA Medical Center. He has been recognized for his mentoring of junior faculty with national and university-wide awards and has served as a primary mentor or on the mentor team for more than 30 funded Career Development Awards from the VA and NIH. He received the 2025 South Carolina Governor’s Award for Excellence in Scientific Research, which is awarded through the South Carolina Academy of Science in recognition of individuals making significant contributions to scientific research within the state, highlighting their achievements and promoting awareness of scientific activity in South Carolina.
Dr. Kautz’s research primarily applies biomechanical and neurophysiological principles to understand the coordination of movement in persons with neurological disorders, mostly in post-stroke hemiparesis, in order to improve neurorehabilitation outcomes. He has more than 150 publications and has been PI for more than $75 million in rehabilitation research awards. He currently directs two NIH-funded centers – the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence for the Restoration of Neural-Based Function and the Center for Advancing Precision Neural Circuit-Based Rehabilitation. He is also the principal investigator of a prestigious $7.9 million NIH C06 construction grant to build a third center - the Clinical Research Center for the Restoration of Neural-based Function in the Real World.