Washington University in St. Louis

Kurt Thoroughman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. He is known for his work in the study of motor control, motor learning, and computational neuroscience.

Thoroughman investigates how humans plan, control, and learn new movements. Understanding normal motor behavior and its neural basis will further the development of insightful clinical tests in movement neurology, and facilitate the early detection and treatment of motor diseases.

Dr. Thoroughman is also the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the School of Engineering at Washington University. He designed and implemented an online intervention, Engineering Virtual Studio, that helps first- and second-year engineers make connections between foundations and real-world problems and solutions, and build scholarly and professional identity, during coursework that typically isolates and dispirits students. His work has been published at the First-Year Engineering Experience and Frontiers in Engineering meetings. Dr. Thoroughman has a grant from the KEEN Network of the Kern Family Foundation to instill early entrepreneurial mindset through this intervention; this work has been accepted for the 2014 American Society of Engineering Education conference.

Thoroughman graduated with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1999, completing a thesis in the Laboratory of Computational Motor Control under the mentorship of Reza Shadmehr. After completion of his PhD, Thoroughman was a postdoctoral fellow with Eve Marder at Brandeis University.