Douglas C. Noll, Ph.D., appointed interim chair of Department of Biomedical Engineering

On Oct. 16, the Board of Regents approved the appointment of Douglas C. Noll, Ph.D., as interim chair of Biomedical Engineering (BME), effective Jan. 1, 2026, while the College of Engineering and Medical School conduct a search for the next chair. 

Current BME Chair Mary-Ann Mycek, Ph.D., will step down from her administrative appointment as the William and Valerie Hall Department Chair of Biomedical Engineering effective Dec. 31, 2025, and retire from the University on Dec. 31, 2026, after a transitional furlough during calendar year 2026. 

Noll is the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Professor of Biomedical Engineering, professor of radiology and co-director of the Functional MRI Laboratory. He steps into this position with 28 years of experience on the U-M faculty, and seven of those years as chair of the BME department. 

Noll brings a wide range of achievements in translational research and inclusive, institutional leadership. He has been performing research in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for over 35 years and has been active in research in functional neuroimaging using MRI for more than 30 years. As part of the Functional MRI Laboratory, his group collaborates with a broad range of neuroscientists to develop an understanding of the organization and functioning of the normal and diseased brain and to apply the technological advances to quantitative imaging of brain function in a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders. He is currently co-lead of the Neuroimaging Core for the Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.

Noll is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), and Biomedical Engineering Society. For the ISMRM, he was program chair for its annual meeting in 2020, was formerly a member of its Board of Trustees, and on three occasions, he received an Outstanding Teacher Award for contributions to the educational program.

He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.