Daofen Chen, Ph.D.

As a Program Director in Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience at NINDS, Dr. Chen is responsible for identifying research issues and administering a grant portfolio related to sensorimotor functions and integration, focusing especially on basic and clinical sciences of sensorimotor control, neurorehabilitation, and related neurotechnologies. Dr. Chen began his graduate training in neurophysiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, studied subsequently at University of Fribourg, and received his Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics at University of Washington. He then spent four years as an NIH NRSA postdoctoral fellow at the Northwestern University Medical School and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, and at the same time completed his clinical training in movement/rehabilitation science there. Prior to joining NINDS, Dr. Chen served on the faculty at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where much of his research has been focused on the cortical and spinal mechanisms of motor control and neural circuit plasticity. He also taught graduate courses on basic and clinical neuroscience, and research designs and methodology.