Dr. Nitish Thakor received his B.Tech. degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay. Later, he obtained his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering (1978) and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (1981) from the University of Wisconsin, USA.

He has served on the faculty of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the Northwestern University from 1981 to 1983. He joined the John Hopkins University in 1983 where he is currently a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Neurology.

He is actively engaged in developing international scientific programmes, collaborative exchanges, tutorials and conferences in the field of Biomedical Engineering. He is the conference chair for the first American Medical Association and IEEE Conference on Individualized Health Care and the organizer of the IEEE Workshops on Grand Challenges in Neural Engineering and Beyond Brain Machine Interface. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Neural and Rehabilitation Engineering.

He is the Editor-in-Chief of PiTech, a Pan-IIT Technology Review magazine of the IIT alumni devoted to highlighting the accomplishments of the IITians and Indians. He is also a co-founder of the Faculty Alumni Network of IIT Bombay devoted to serving the faculty of the institute and assisting with teaching, mentoring, research, and recruiting missions.

Dr. Thakor is a recipient of Presidential Young Investigator Award, National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health Career Award. He was given a Distinguished Service Award by the Indian Institute of technology Bombay, and a Centennial Medal by the University of Wisconsin, School of Engineering. He is also an IEEE Fellow, Founding Fellow of Biomedical Engineering Society, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.