Michael L. Oshinsky, PhD

Dr. Michael L. Oshinsky joined the NINDS in 2014 as a Program Director in Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience. Dr. Oshinsky received a B.A. in Biology with a concentration in Neuroscience from Brandeis University, where he learned electrophysiology in the laboratory of Eve E. Marder, Ph.D. He earned a Ph.D. in Neurobiology & Behavior from Cornell University in the laboratory of Ronald R. Hoy studying neural circuits. As an NIH sponsored postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, he trained with Gary Aston-Jones, Ph.D. in neuropharmacology and neuromodulation. He was on the faculty in the Department of Neurology at Thomas Jefferson University since 2001, before joining the NINDS. During those years he was the Director of Preclinical Research at the Jefferson Headache Center and directed an NIH funded research program aimed at developing and characterizing animal models of headache. In 2011, Dr. Oshinsky was award the Harold G. Wolff Award for headache research. He also taught in the Graduate Neuroscience Program and the Sydney Kimmel Medicine College at Thomas Jefferson University. As a Program Director at NINDS, Dr. Oshinsky is responsible for research and administrative issues related to migraine, other headache disorders, neuropathic pain, peripheral and central mechanisms that mediate pain, central processing of pain perception, disease-related pain disorders, and pain management.