Randolph J. Nudo, Ph.D.

Randolph J. Nudo, Ph.D. is Director of the Landon Center on Aging and Professor in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology. As Director, Dr. Nudo is responsible for fiscal management of the Center on Aging, coordination of interdisciplinary education, research and service activities, and the development of new programs devoted to the health and well-being of older Kansans.

Current Research Funding: Dr. Nudo is Principal Investigator on an NIH funded project to study neural mechanisms of functional recovery after stroke, now in its 16th year of support. Due to the cutting-edge nature of this research and the potential implications for future stroke treatments, Dr. Nudo recently was selected by the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke for the prestigious Javits Investigator Award in Neuroscience. This award will provide approximately $4 million dollars in funding for Dr. Nudo’s stroke research program for the next seven years, pending administrative review. He is also Principal Investigator on a $3.5 million NIH funded multi-institution Translational Research Center to optimize a new form of cortical electrical stimulation therapy to improve recovery after stroke. Dr. Nudo serves as co-Investigator on several other NIH and foundation grants with faculty at KUMC, and investigators at Case Western Reserve University. Finally, he is actively engaged with industry partners to develop novel pharmaceutical interventions for recovery after stroke.

Service: Dr. Nudo serves on the board of directors of the American Society for Neurorehabilitation. He is Deputy Editor of a new journal entitled Brain Stimulation, and is on the editorial boards of Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, and Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair. He has served on several NIH study sections, reviews grant proposals for the Veterans Administration and several international government and foundation funding agencies. He is a frequent reviewer for the Journal of Neuroscience, Stroke, Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the Journal of Neurophysiology, Journal of Cerebral Blood Flood and Metabolism and many other leading journals in neuroscience and neurology. He has also served on several national advisory boards to NIH, academic institutions, and national scientific societies. He was a major contributor to the NIH Stroke Progress Review Group that outlined the stroke research agenda for 10 years.

Awards and Honors: Dr. Nudo has been the recipient of an Established Investigatorship and a Bugher Award from the American Heart Association. He currently holds the Javits Investigator Award from NIH. He has presented the Lillian Pollard Memorial Lectureship at the University of Toronto, the Louis E. Alley Memorial Lecture at the University of Iowa, the Grass Foundation Lecture at Emory University, and other keynote addresses at national and international meetings. He received the annual Doctoral Graduate Award of Distinction by the Program in Neuroscience at Florida State University in 2000. His research published in Science was cited as one of the top 100 science stories of 1996 by Discovery magazine. Dr. Nudo was honored by the University of Kansas in 2007 with the Chancellor’s Club Research Award. This award honors a KU Medical Center researcher whose work has led to significant scientific discoveries.

Previous Positions: After receiving a doctoral degree in psychology, Dr. Nudo received postdoctoral training in physiology at the University of California at San Francisco. Prior to joining the University of Kansas Medical Center, Dr. Nudo was a faculty member of the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, where he was associate professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy.

Primary Research Interests: Dr. Nudo’s research focuses on translating basic science research into more effective clinical interventions for neurological disorders that accompany aging. He is recognized internationally for his work on the effects of rehabilitative training on functional plasticity after stroke, and is a frequent speaker at national and international symposia on stroke, neurology, physical therapy and rehabilitation.

Publications: Dr. Nudo has published his work in Science, The Journal of Neuroscience, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Journal of Neurophysiology, Stroke, Journal of Comparative Neurology, Cerebral Cortex, Current Opinions in Neurobiology, Nature Medicine, Somatosensory and Motor Research, Neurology Report, Brain Behavior and Evolution, Molecular Psychiatry, Neuropharmacology, Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, ILAR Journal, Muscle and Nerve, Revue Neurologique, NeuroRx, Experimental Brain Research, Behavioral Brain Research, Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Neurological Research, Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, Experimental Brain Research, Behavioral Neuroscience, Neurological Research, OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health, Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America.