Program Director
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH-NINDS)
Nick B. Langhals, Ph.D. serves as Program Director for Neural Engineering within the Repair and Plasticity Cluster at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Nick Langhals is a team lead in both the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative as well as the Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) program. He currently manages a grant portfolio in the areas of neurotechnology development, validation, and translation for applications in neuroscience, neurophysiology, neuromodulation, and other interfaces with the nervous system. Dr. Langhals received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E. – 2001) from Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ). He received both a Master of Science in Engineering (M.S.E. – 2003) as well as a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D. – 2010) in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI). Prior to arriving at the NIH in 2015, Dr. Langhals served as a Research Assistant Professor in Plastic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. Dr. Langhals served as Co-Director of the Neuromuscular Laboratory, which has developed a regenerative peripheral nerve interface (RPNI) to extract prosthetic control signals and restore lost sensation to amputees for the control of replacement upper and lower extremity prostheses. Dr. Langhals has worked as a Senior Research Engineer within the Center for Neural Communication Technology and also served as a consultant for Neuronexus Technologies (Ann Arbor, MI), Biotectix (Ann Arbor, MI), and Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI). He was a co-founder of Rhythm Solutions, a University of Michigan startup company focused on the development and commercialization of automated algorithms and technologies for the diagnosis and monitoring of atrial fibrillation.