About
Christoph Dinh
I am a biomedical engineer working on neurotechnology: the acquisition, real-time processing and decoding of neural signals, and the systems that put them to use.
Biography
I studied biomedical engineering at Technische Universität Ilmenau, with bioelectromagnetism and neuroinformatics as main subjects. My master’s thesis took me to the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in Boston, where I began working on the real-time analysis of magnetoencephalography. That became the subject of my doctorate, supervised by Jens Haueisen in Ilmenau and Matti Hämäläinen at the Martinos Center, which I completed in 2015.
During the doctorate I started MNE-CPP, an open-source framework that brings the methods of the MNE software family to C++ and to real-time use. It became the acquisition software of a paediatric MEG system at Boston Children’s Hospital and the basis of a project funded by the US National Institutes of Health. From 2016 to 2018 I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Martinos Center, where I worked on recurrent neural networks for the inverse problem.
Alongside the research I have spent most of my career building medical systems in industry: navigation software for trauma surgery at Stryker, the software of a magnetic resonance system for newborns at Neoscan Solutions, and signal processing for cardiac mapping at Ablacon, as software architect, head of software development and research lead.
In 2022 I joined ZEISS. I now lead Physical AI & Computing at the ZEISS Innovation Hub @ KIT in Karlsruhe and coordinate the company’s technology field of brain–computer interfaces, a topic I began building up there in 2023. My group includes doctoral researchers and students working on neural decoding.
My current research interests are neural decoding, closed-loop systems, and interfaces that combine electrical and optical methods. They are described on the research page. I give guest lectures at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and remain active in the development of MNE-CPP.
Career
A full curriculum vitae as PDF is available on request.
Positions in industry
Since 2026
Head of Physical AI & Computing
Carl Zeiss AG, ZEISS Innovation Hub @ KIT, Karlsruhe
Leads research and development teams in physical AI, computing and medical technology.
Since 2025
Coordinator, technology field brain–computer interfaces
Carl Zeiss AG, Karlsruhe
Coordinates the company’s activities in brain–computer interfaces, a topic I began building up there in 2023.
2024–2025
Team lead, medical robotics and assistance systems
Carl Zeiss AG, ZEISS Innovation Hub @ KIT, Karlsruhe
2022–2024
Software architect, AI platform
Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Munich
2021–2022
Research lead
Ablacon Inc., Munich
Signal processing and analysis for electrographic flow mapping in atrial fibrillation.
2017–2021
Director of software development
Neoscan Solutions GmbH, Magdeburg
Software of a magnetic resonance system for newborns.
2015–2016
Software architect
Stryker, Trauma & Extremities, Freiburg
Navigation software for computer-assisted implant placement.
Academic appointments and affiliations
Since 2018 these have been held alongside my main employment in industry.
Since 2025
Guest lecturer
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Karlsruhe · Unpaid
2021–2025
Co-founder
BRAIN-LINK UG · Secondary activity
Open acquisition software for MRI; ScanHub.
2018–2021
Postdoctoral researcher
Research Campus STIMULATE, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg · Part-time
2018–2022
Research consultant
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston · A few hours per week
2016–2018
Postdoctoral research fellow
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, USA
Real-time MEG and EEG software; deep learning for the inverse problem.
2014–2020
Affiliated research associate
Boston Children’s Hospital, Newborn Medicine, Boston · Unpaid affiliation
Acquisition and real-time analysis software for the BabyMEG system.
2011–2015
Doctoral researcher
Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Informatics, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Ilmenau
Real-time localisation of neural sources; start of MNE-CPP. Research stays at the Martinos Center in 2010 and 2012.
2011–2012
Research fellow
Jena University Hospital, Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Jena · During the doctorate
Education
2015
Doctorate in engineering (Dr.-Ing.), summa cum laude
Technische Universität Ilmenau
Dissertation: Brain Monitoring: Real-Time Localization of Neuronal Activity. Supervisors: Jens Haueisen (TU Ilmenau) and Matti S. Hämäläinen (Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School).
2010
M.Sc. Biomedical Engineering
Technische Universität Ilmenau
Thesis at the Martinos Center on real-time feature extraction and classification of MEG signals.
2009
B.Sc. Biomedical Engineering
Technische Universität Ilmenau
Thesis at Fraunhofer IIS, Erlangen, on real-time fall detection with an accelerometer.
Funding
Externally funded research programmes I have contributed to, with my role in each.
2017–2022
Device-independent acquisition and real time spatiotemporal analysis of clinical electrophysiology data
US National Institutes of Health, NIBIB · U01 EB023820
Supported the application, which was based on MNE-CPP; postdoctoral researcher on the project. Principal investigators: Matti S. Hämäläinen, Yoshio Okada, John C. Mosher.
2013–2015
Online MEG source localisation using high-performance GPU computing
German Research Foundation (DFG) · Ba 4858/1-1
Contributor to the proposal, which built on my work on MNE-CPP and GPU-based RAP-MUSIC; research fellow. Principal investigator: Daniel Baumgarten.
2017
Cloud computing for deep-learning-based MEG and EEG source estimation
Microsoft Azure for Research Award
Sole applicant.
2009–2016
Tools for large-scale platform-independent MEG data analysis
US National Institutes of Health, NIBIB · R01 EB009048
Doctoral and postdoctoral researcher on the project. Principal investigator: Matti S. Hämäläinen.
Awards and scholarships
- 2017
- Microsoft Azure for Research Award
- 2014
- Oral presentation award, second prize, workshop on biosignal processing of the German Society for Biomedical Engineering (DGBMT)
- 2010, 2012
- Scholarships of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for research at Massachusetts General Hospital
- 2007–2010
- Scholarship of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes)
Academic service
- Since 2023
- Editorial board member, Frontiers in Neuroscience, section Brain Imaging Methods
- Ongoing
- Reviewer for NeuroImage, Scientific Reports and IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging
Contact
- Location
- Karlsruhe, Germany
This is a personal website. It does not speak for ZEISS (opens in a new tab) or any other organisation named on it.