Geoffrey Ling

Geoffrey S. F. Ling is a medical doctor who retired from the United States Army as a colonel and was the CEO of On Demand Pharmaceuticals. He served as the founding director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office from 2014 until 2016. He was considered to be the "US Army's premier subject matter expert on traumatic brain injury (TBI)", and was for years the only neuro-intensive care specialist in the US military. In April 2020, Ling co-wrote with Michael Stebbins the proposal for the creation this new federal agency modeled on DARPA, but focused on health. That proposal was adopted by then former Vice-President Biden's presidential campaign and published on line as part of the Day One Project. It became the model used to establish the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).

Personal Ling was born in Baltimore, MD to Alfred Ling, M.D, Ph.D. and Helen M. Ling, M.S. His father was a professor at Rockefeller University and a pharmaceutical executive. His mother was an aerospace engineer who worked on the U.S. space program. He is married to Shari Ling, M.D., the national Deputy Chief Medical Officer of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Education

Ling graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York City. He earned his BA from Washington University in St. Louis, and earned his Ph.D. in pharmacology from Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences (1982). He completed post doctoral training in Neuropharmacology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (1982-1985).

Professional history

Military

Ling completed two war deployments as a neurointensive care physician: Afghanistan (2003) and Iraq (2005), as well as four "Gray Team" missions to study combat brain injuries. Earlier in 2014, DARPA's Biological Technologies Office announced the launch of a new Hand Proprioception and Touch Interfaces (HAPTIX) program, which aims to deliver naturalistic sensations to amputees and, in the process, enable intuitive, dexterous control of advanced prosthetic devices; provide the psychological benefit of improving prosthesis "embodiment"; and reduce phantom limb pain. Ling has described the problem of developing a high quality artificial arm as "doggone hard".