ACU Researcher

Dr Govinda Poudel

Senior Lecturer
Mary Mackillop Institute for Health Sciences

Dr. Govinda Poudel is an engineer and interdisciplinary academic with expertise in neural engineering, computational neuroimaging, and data science. He holds a PhD from the University of Otago, New Zealand, and a BE (First Class Honours) from the University of Technology Sydney. His research combines multimodal neuroimaging techniques (MRI and EEG) with computational modelling and advanced analytics to develop novel biomarkers of brain health, supporting applications in ageing, neurological disorders, and brain injury.

A key focus of his research is understanding whether, and how, brain regions that are wired together also degenerate together in neurological conditions. Using network spread models, Dr. Poudel has demonstrated how pathology propagates along white matter pathways, applying these methods to traumatic brain injury, Huntington’s disease, and ALS. By integrating multimodal neuroimaging with graph-theoretical and AI-driven approaches, his work provides new insights into disease progression and the development of biomarkers for brain health.

Dr. Poudel has collaborated with interdisciplinary research teams across institutions including the University of Sydney, Monash University, and the New Zealand Brain Research Institute. His work has resulted in more than 85 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals, as well as approximately AUD 0.5 million in research grants and fellowships. His contributions have been recognised with prestigious awards, including the Hereditary Disease Foundation USA Fellowship and the Endeavour Australia Research Fellowship.

Beyond research, Dr. Poudel has actively contributed to the scientific community as a member of the editorial boards of BMC Biomedical Engineering and SLEEP (2014–2017), published by Oxford Academic. He is also a senior member of IEEE, committed to advancing medical imaging and computational engineering through interdisciplinary collaboration.

Select publications

Book Chapters

• Poudel, G. R., & Jones, R. D. (2023). Multimodal Neuroimaging with Simultaneous fMRI and EEG. In Handbook of Neuroengineering (pp. 2893-2915). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
• Soloveva, M.V., Poudel, G., Barnett, A., Cerin, E. (2024). Neighbourhood Urban Environments and Cognitive Health in Ageing Populations. In: Kühn, S. (eds) Environmental Neuroscience. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-64699-7_13
• Lorenzetti, V., Murphy, E., Paloubis, A., Suo, C., Poudel, G., & Thomson, H. (2025). Mapping Brain Structure and Function in Addiction: A Narrative Review of Neuroimaging Studies. The Sage Handbook of Addiction Psychology.

Journal Publications

• Abeyasinghe, P. M., Cole, J. H., Razi, A., Poudel, G. R., Paulsen, J. S., Tabrizi, S. J.,... & Georgiou-Karistianis, N. (2025). Brain Age as a New Measure of Disease Stratification in Huntington's Disease. Movement Disorders.
• Poudel, G. R., Sharma, P., Lorenzetti, V., Parsons, N., & Cerin, E. (2024). Network Representation of fMRI Data Using Visibility Graphs: The Impact of Motion and Test-Retest Reliability. Neuroinformatics, 22(2), 107-118.
• Ghofrani-Jahromi, M., Poudel, G. R., Razi, A., Abeyasinghe, P. M., Paulsen, J. S., Tabrizi, S. J.,... & Georgiou-Karistianis, N. (2024). Prognostic enrichment for early-stage Huntington's disease: An explainable machine learning approach for clinical trial. NeuroImage: Clinical, 43, 103650.
• Murphy, E., Poudel, G., Ganesan, S., Suo, C., Manning, V., Beyer, E.,... & Lorenzetti, V. (2024). Real-time fMRI-based neurofeedback to restore brain function in substance use disorders: A systematic review of the literature. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 105865.
• Zaky, M. H., Shoorangiz, R., Poudel, G. R., Yang, L., Innes, C. R., & Jones, R. D. (2024). Conscious but not thinking-Mind-blanks during visuomotor tracking: An fMRI study of endogenous attention lapses. Human Brain Mapping, 45(11), e26781.
• Imms, P., Chowdhury, N. F., Chaudhari, N. N., Amgalan, A., Poudel, G., Caeyenberghs, K., & Irimia, A. (2024). Prediction of cognitive outcome after mild traumatic brain injury from acute measures of communication within brain networks. Cortex, 171, 397-412.
• Parsons, N., Irimia, A., Amgalan, A., Ugon, J., Morgan, K., Shelyag, S.,... & Poudel, G. R., Caeyenberghs, K. (2023). Structural-functional connectivity bandwidth predicts processing speed in mild traumatic brain Injury: A multiplex network analysis. NeuroImage: Clinical, 38, 103428.
• Poudel, G. R., Barnett, A., Akram, M., Martino, E., Knibbs, L. D., Anstey, K. J.,... & Cerin, E. (2022). Machine learning for prediction of cognitive health in adults using sociodemographic, neighbourhood environmental, and lifestyle factors. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(17), 10977.
• Parsons, N., Ugon, J., Morgan, K., Shelyag, S., Hocking, A., Chan, S. Y.,... & Poudel G. R., Caeyenberghs, K. (2022). Structural-functional connectivity bandwidth of the human brain. NeuroImage, 263, 119659.
• Poudel, G. R., Hawes, S., Innes, C. R., Parsons, N., Drummond, S. P., Caeyensberghs, K., & Jones, R. D. (2021). RoWDI: rolling window detection of sleep intrusions in the awake brain using fMRI. Journal of neural engineering, 18(5), 056063.
• Bhattarai, A., Chen, Z., Chua, P., Talman, P., Mathers, S., Chapman, C.,... & Egan, G. F. (2022). Network diffusion model predicts neurodegeneration in limb-onset Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Plos one, 17(8), e0272736.
• Poudel, G. R., Dominguez D, J. F., Verhelst, H., Vander Linden, C., Deblaere, K., Jones, D. K.,... & Caeyenberghs, K. (2020). Network diffusion modeling predicts neurodegeneration in traumatic brain injury. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, 7(3), 270-279.
• Poudel, G. R., Harding, I. H., Egan, G. F., & Georgiou-Karistianis, N. (2019). Network spread determines severity of degeneration and disconnection in Huntington's disease. Human brain mapping, 40(14), 4192-4201.

Projects

• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Hereditary Disease Foundation, USA, $150,000 (2015-2017)
• Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant, School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, $75,000, 2015-2016
• Huntington's NSW Project grant, 2015, $55,000
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund, 2010-2012, $150,000

Awards

• Endeavour Australia Fellowship, Australian Government, Department of Education, Australia, 2016
• ECR Fellow Publication Prize, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing, and Health, Sciences, Monash University, 2015
• Young Biomedical Engineer Award, College of Biomedical Engineers, Engineers Australia, 2004

Appointments and Affiliations

• 2016-2017, Imaging Scientist, Sydney Imaging, The University of Sydney, NSW
• 2012-2016, Computational Imaging Scientist, Monash Biomedical Imaging/School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University
• 2010-2012, NeuroEngineer/Neuroscientist, Canterbury District Health Board, New Zealand

Editorial roles

• 2023 - BMC Biomedical Engineering, Editorial Board
• 2014 - 2016, Editorial Board, SLEEP

Grant agency review panels

• Canterbury District Health Board, 2023
• NHMRC
• ARC

Public engagement

• Treasurer, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine - ANZ