Nitish Thakor

Short CV

Nitish Thakor is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. His technical expertise is in the fields of Medical Instrumentation and Neuroengineering, where he has carried out research on many technologies for brain monitoring, implantable neurotechnologies, neuroprosthesis and brain-machine interface. He has published over 425 refereed journal papers (GH Index 85), obtained 16 US and international patents and co-founded 3 active companies. He was previously the Editor in Chief of IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, and currently the EIC of Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing (Springer/Nature). He received a Research Career Development Award from NIH and a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the NSF, and is a Fellow of AIMBE, Life Fellow of IEEE, BMES, and IAMBE.  He is a recipient of a Distinguished Alumnus Award from Indian Institute of Technology, India, and a Centennial Medal from the University of Wisconsin School of Engineering.

Selected Awards

• 2021, Elected, National Academy of Inventors
• 2017, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Academic Career Leadership Award
• 2016, Engineering Leadership Award, National University of Singapore
• 2010, Distinguished Achievement Award, University of Wisconsin, School of Engineering, Madison, WI
• 2010, Technical Achievement Award from IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
• 2008, 2010, Distinguished Service Award, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, 2008 and Distinguished Alumnus Award, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, 2010
• 2005, Founding Fellow, Biomedical Engineering Society
• 1997, Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• 1996, Fellow, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering
• 1993, Centennial Achievement Medal - University of Wisconsin, School of Engineering
• 1985-1991, The Presidential Young Investigator Award, The National Science Foundation
• 1985-1990, Research Career Development Award, The National Institutes of Health

Research Interests

Neuroengineering: neurally inspired sensors, prostheses, dexterous robotic hands, neural interface for neuroprosthesis, neuromorphic encoding, brain machine interface and cognitive engineering

Selected Publications

• Osborn L. E, Dragomir A. Betthauser J. L., Hunt C. L., Nguyen H. H., Kaliki R. R., and Thakor N. V., “Prosthesis with neuromorphic multilayered e-dermis perceives touch and pain,” Science Robotics., 3, eaat3818 (2018) 20 June 2018.
   
• Thomas T. M., Candrea D. N., Fifer M. S., McMullen M. S., Anderson W. S., Thakor N. V., Crone N. E., “Decoding native cortical representations for flexion and extension at upper limb joints using electrocorticography, “ IEEE Trans. Neural Systems Rehab Eng, Vol. 27(2), pp. 293-303, 2019. DOI: 10.1109/TNSRE.2019.2891362
   
• Ponraj G., Prituja A. V., Li C., Guoniu Z., Thakor N.V., and Ren H., “ Pinch grasp and suction for delicate object manipulations using modular anthropomorphic robotic gripper with soft layer enhancements,” Robotics,  8(3), 67; 2019.
   
• Patil A., Bandla A., Liu Y.-H., Luo B., Thakor N.V., “Nontransient silk sandwich for soft, conformal bionic links,” Materials Today, Oct 2019.
   
• Nakagawa A., Thakor N. V., Cabibihan J.-J., Soares A., “A bio-inspired slip detection and reflex-like suppression method for robotic manipulators," IEEE Sensors J., Vol. 19(24), pp. 12443 – 12453;  2019, doi: 10.1109/JSEN.2019.2939506
   
• Iskarous M. and Thakor N. V., “E-Skins: Biomimetic Sensing and Encoding for Upper Limb Prostheses,” Proc. IEEE, Vol. 107  (10), pp. 2052 - 2064, Oct. 2019.
   
• Tayeb Z., Bose R., Dragomir, A. Osborn L.E., Thakor N. V., Cheng G.,”Decoding of pain perception using EEG Signals for a real-time reflex system in prostheses: A case study. Sci Rep 10, 5606, 2020.
   
• Ding K., Dragomir A., Bose R., Osborn L., Seet M., Bezerianos A., Thakor N. V., "Towards machine to brain interfaces: Sensory stimulation enhances sensorimotor dynamic functional connectivity in upper limb amputees"  J. Neural Eng., Vol. 17 (3), 035002, 2020.
   
• Sankar S., Balamurugan D., Brown A., Ding K. Xu X., LowJ. H. Yeow C. H., and Thakor N., “ Texture discrimination with a soft biomimetic finger using a flexible neuromorphic tactile sensor array that provides sensory feedback, Soft Robotics, 2020. doi: 10.1089/soro.2020.0016.
   
• Osborn L. E., Ding K., Hays M. A., Bose R., Iskarous M. M., Dragomir A., Tayeb Z.,  Lévay G. M., Hunt C. L., Cheng G., Armiger R.S., Bezerianos A., Fifer M.S., Thakor N. V., “Sensory stimulation enhances phantom limb perception and movement decoding,“ J. Neural Eng. 17 056006, 2020.