Dr. Geoffrey Ling is a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he has responsibility for a broad research portfolio. His most prominent programs are the Revolutionizing Prosthesis (RP) and Preventing Violent Explosive Neuro Trauma (PREVENT) programs. RP is a program to develop a brain controlled robot prosthetic arm for amputees and was featured on “60 Minutes.” PREVENT is a program to develop new understanding and treatment of blast related brain injury and has been featured in US Today, the NY Post, and other similar venues.
He received his BA with honors from Washington University in Saint Louis, Ph.D. in pharmacology from Cornell University, and MD from Georgetown University School of Medicine. He did a neurology residency at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center followed by a neuro-intensive care fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Dr. Ling is an authority on traumatic brain injury (TBI), especially as it pertains to the military. He is a professor in the Department of Neurology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), attending neuro critical care physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital and was recently appointed to White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President of the United States.
COL(retired) Ling retired from the US Army. As a military intensive care physician, he deployed with the 44th Medical Command (Airborne) to Afghanistan in 2003 and again in 2005 to Baghdad, Iraq. One of his units in Iraq, the 10th Combat Support Hospital, awarded him the first “Physician of the Month” distinction. In addition, he went on all four Gray Team missions to both Iraq and Afghanistan (2009-2012). The Gray Team was a team created by ADM Mullen, the Chairman of the JCS, composed of senior military medical officers tasked to evaluate and recommend improvements in war theater TBI care.
Dr Ling is board certified in both Neurology and Neuro Critical Care. He has published over 150 peer-review journal articles, reviews and book chapters including the traumatic brain injury chapter in Cecil's Textbook of Medicine. He is serving or has served on the NIH-NINDS Advisory Council, the executive board of the Neuro Critical Care Society, the NFL Head and Spine Injury committee, the NFLPA concussion committee and other similar positions.