Professor Michael Nilsson, MD, PhD, FAFRM (RACP) is the Director of the Centre for Rehab Innovations (CRI) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. As a senior leader in health care and academia, he has led medical research institutes, university hospital clinics and clusters, and research centres of excellence. He is an internationally recognised clinical academic and leader in rehabilitation medicine and translational neuroscience. Over the course of his career, he has made significant contributions in areas of long-term recovery and health preservation in neurological conditions with a particular focus on stroke. With a strong dedication to translating research into actionable solutions, he demonstrated that functional recovery after stroke can be influenced by clinically important modulators such as stress, environmental enrichment, physical activity, and specific neuroactive agents. In parallel multidisciplinary studies, he developed and evaluated AI-based clinical decision support tools for stratification of individuals to tailored holistic rehabilitation programs in different care settings. He collaborates with leading national and international teams in health, academia, and business, and has professorial affiliations with University of Gothenburg, Sweden, NTU/LKC Medicine, Singapore and La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.