Dr. Michael Kilgard is one of the leading researchers in the area of directing neural plasticity for the treatment of serious neurological and psychiatric disorders. His team invented precisely timed vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and has showed it can enhance plasticity and improve rehabilitation outcomes in multiple animal models and in patients with stroke, tinnitus, spinal cord injury, and PTSD. In 2021, VNS was FDA approved as the first neurotechnology proven to improve function after stroke. Dr. Kilgard has more than forty patents and has published 130 papers in top journals, including Nature, Science, Nature Neuroscience, Stroke, and Neuron. He is the recipient of the University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award. Dr. Kilgard is the director of the Texas Biomedical Device Center (txbdc.com) and has received more than $20 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense.

Dr. Kilgard trained in biochemistry and genetics at the University of California at Berkeley and in neuroscience at the University of California at San Francisco. Dr. Kilgard is also an Eagle Scout and was born and raised in Texas.