Nader Pouratian

Nader Pouratian, M.D., Ph.D., became Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery in April 2021. Dr. Pouratian is the Principal Investigator of multiple NIH grants, investigating basic human neuroscientific principles of movement regulation and illnesses such as Parkinson’s disease, chronic pain, depression, disorders of consciousness, cardiac disease, and blindness. He led a first-in-human clinical trial to provide an artificial vision for the blind using a novel brain stimulator. His research uses advanced imaging and intracranial recordings in humans to understand the network basis of neuropsychiatric disease and to develop targeted therapeutic brain stimulation and other advanced. Pouratian joined the faculty at UCLA in 2009, became a Vice Chair of Neurosurgery in 2016, and a Professor of Neurosurgery in 2019. He earned his combined medical and Ph.D. degrees in Neuroscience from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and completed his neurosurgical residency and functional neurosurgery fellowship at the University of Virginia.