Rate My Professor Linda Chang

Linda Chang, MD, MS, FAAN, is Professor in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine with a secondary appointment in Neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. She earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland, College Park, an M.S. in Physiology and Biophysics, and an M.D. from Georgetown University School of Medicine. Her training included an internship at Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center, neurology residency, neurophysiology fellowship, and neuroimaging research fellowship at UCLA Medical Center.

Dr. Chang's career includes Assistant Professor of Neurology (tenure-track, 1992-1999) and Associate Professor (tenured, 1999-2000) at UCLA School of Medicine; Scientist and Chair of the Medical Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory (2000-2004); tenured Professor of Medicine at John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (2004-2017), where she co-directed the UH MR Research Center (2004-2017) and served as Program Director for Specialized Neuroscience Research Program and neuroscience research (2007-2012). Since 2017, she has held positions at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, with adjunct roles as Professor in Neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (2017-present) and Adjunct Clinical Professor at UH (2017-2020). Her research applies advanced neuroimaging techniques including morphometry, diffusion tensor imaging, BOLD-fMRI, cerebrovascular reactivity, and MR spectroscopy to brain disorders such as HIV, Alzheimer’s disease, and substance use disorders in the elderly, adolescent brain development, and long-COVID brain injury. Ongoing work uses MRI-guided focused ultrasound for blood-brain barrier opening to deliver gene therapy, antiretrovirals for CNS HIV reservoirs, monoclonal antibodies for Alzheimer’s, and to modulate brain function in substance use disorders. Author of over 260 peer-reviewed publications, key works include "CCR5-Ligand Decorated Rilpivirine Lipid-based Nanoparticles for Sustained Antiretroviral Responses" (Nature Communications, 2025), "Cognitive and behavioral outcomes of snoring in a large sample of adolescents" (JAMA Network Open, 2024), "Structural alterations in the frontal lobe mediate the impact of snoring and associated symptoms on childhood behavior" (Nature Communications, 2021), "Diagnostics of SARS-CoV-2 Infections" (Nature Materials, 2021), "Improved Brain Function after Working Memory Training in HIV Patients" (Annals of Neurology, 2017), and "Sex-Specific Alterations of White Matter Developmental Trajectories in Infants with Prenatal Methamphetamine and Tobacco-Exposure" (JAMA Psychiatry, 2016). Awards include the 2021 NIH Avant-Garde Award (DP1), 2020 Reuben S. Mezrich Research Prize, NIH K24 Midcareer Investigator Awards (2003-2014), Joseph Wybran Research Award (2010), and fellowships such as FAAN and FANA. She has served as Section Editor for Journal of NeuroImmune Pharmacology (2006-2021), on editorial boards of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging (2007-2017), Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (2007-2016), and others, and on NIH councils including National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse (2017-2020).