Mark Tommerdahl

Mark Tommerdahl is the Inventor & Lead Scientist of the Brain Gauge, a device used by biohackers, health professionals, athletes, and executives that offers both brain assessment and brain training. Mark received his B.S. in Biology from Davidson College in 1980 and subsequently earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics from the University of North Carolina. An NIH award funded his post-doctoral studies in Neurobiology, and subsequently he was awarded an NIH FIRST award that goes to promising young faculty. Dr. Tommerdahl joined the faculty in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina in 1992 and remained there as a professor until his recent retirement.

During the first 25 years of his academic career, Dr. Tommerdahl focused on cortical dynamics, or how different populations of neurons in the brain interacted in animal models. During this part of his career, Dr. Tommerdahl played a leading role in developing high resolution imaging and imaging analysis methods to study patterns of cortical activity. These studies provided novel ideas about cortical-cortical interactions, functional modularity, tactile-pain interactions, plasticity and interactions within and across cortical hemispheres.

The knowledge base obtained from these laboratory studies led to the design and fabrication of sensory testing techniques in the early 2000s that are now used by the Brain Gauge in clinics and clinical research. Dr. Tommerdahl continues to collaborate with researchers around the world on topics across a broad spectrum of neurological issues (e.g., traumatic, developmental, degenerative, pain, pharmacological) and has authored well over 140 peer reviewed publications.