David Holder, PhD, FInstP, FRCP

David Holder, PhD, FInstP, FRCP, is jointly qualified in clinical medicine and biophysics from the University of Cambridge and University College Hospital London (UCH). He undertook a master's degree in biophysics at the University of California, Berkeley and a PhD in physiology at University College London (UCL). Professor Holder held a Medical Research Council (MRC) training fellowship and then a Royal Society University Research Fellowship at UCL before taking a position as a consultant in clinical neurophysiology at the Middlesex Hospital and UCH.

Professor Holder has led the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology at UCH, which undertakes EMG, EEG and nerve conduction studies since 1997. He also leads a multidisciplinary neurophysiology and bioengineering research group in medical physics at UCL. The group is developing new methods to image function in the brain and peripheral nervous system and is currently funded by the MRC, Medical Research Council and Engineering and Physics Research Council. It has pioneered the new method of electrical impedance tomography for this purpose. This provides a new tool in clinical neuroscience as it can provide 3D images of fast neural activity over milliseconds in the brain and peripheral nerves.

• Clinical neurophysiology
• Electroencephalography (EEG)
• Electromyography (EMG)
• Nerve conduction studies
• Neural engineering
• Neuromodulation
• New methods for imaging nervous system function

• Medical sciences, physiology with biophysics, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge
• Clinical medicine, University College Hospital London
• Biophysics, University of California, Berkeley

Professor Holder developed a practical possible way to image fast neural activity in the brain during his master's training at Berkeley in 1983. It was the new method of electrical impedance tomography (EIT). With an MRC training fellowship and then Royal Society University Research Fellowship held at University College London, he has built up an interdisciplinary research group that has pioneered the application of EIT for imaging brain and nerve function. This group has been in medical physics at UCL since 2005.

Professor Holder has published approximately 170 articles in refereed journals on biomedical engineering and neurophysiology and three books on biomedical electrical impedance tomography.

• English
• French