Michael Funke, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurology
Director, Magnetic Source Imaging Program
Dr Michael Funke started his medical career at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany where he graduated in 1989.
Since 1987 Dr. Funke has been involved in electro-neurophysiology research in the Institute of Pathological Physiology of the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena where electro-neurophysiology has a long tradition. It was here that Hans Berger, chairman of the Department of Neurology until 1942, discovered the human EEG.
Dr. Funke has worked in various fields such as neonatal polygraphy and animal EEG experiments as well as qEEG analysis and pharmaceutical studies. In 1995 the University in Jena installed a Philips MEG system. At that time Dr Funke conducted research in simultaneous MEG and EEG using realistically shaped volume conductor models. Furthermore, he was involved in MEG pre-surgical mapping in brain tumor patients. In 1997 Dr Funke earned a Ph.D. in human medicine at the University in Jena
Dr. Funke joined the MEG research program at the Department of Radiology at the University of Utah in December 1997 and has been the Director of the Magnetic Source Imaging Program since 2003. Dr. Funke became a faculty member of the Department of Neurology in January 2006. He also serves on the board of the American Clinical MEG Society (ACMEGS), currently as the society’s president.
As the director of UUMSI Dr. Funke is responsible for infrastructure and all research and clinical operations, utilization of the MEG system, staff supervision. Additionally, he assists colleagues with grant proposals, recruitment of staff and students, as well as conducting research and development projects leading to useful and clinically streamlined MEG analysis software.
Dr. Funke’s long-term goal is to help to make MSI a valuable clinical diagnostic tool, a goal that will keep him busy for the next few years. He also has a goal to successfully compete for an altitude record in amateur rocketry. He is not quiet sure yet what goal will take him longer to achieve.
