Dennis Choi chosen as president-elect of the Society of Neuroscience

Neurologist is expert on mechanisms of nerve cell injury

Dennis W. Choi, M.D., Ph.D., the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and head of neurology, will become president-elect of the Society for Neuroscience in November.

With more than 25,000 members, the Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest association of scientists dedicated to understanding the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system.

Choi: renowned neurologist

"I am deeply honored to be elected to lead this distinguished scientific society as we move into the next millennium," Choi said. "Understanding how the brain works, in health and disease, is fundamental to our pursuit of self-awareness and knowledge and to our hopes for treating the many patients who suffer from diseases of the nervous system."

Choi was born in Ann Arbor, Mich., attended Harvard College, and received both a medical degree and a doctorate in pharmacology from Harvard University in 1978. After residency and fellowship training in neurology at Harvard, he joined the neurology faculty at Stanford University. In 1991, he came to Washington University, where he also directs the Center for the Study of Nervous System Injury and the McDonnell Center for Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience.

Internationally known for his research on the mechanisms of nerve cell injury, Choi has received numerous awards. These include the 1992 Wakeman Award for Neurosciences Research, the 1994 Silvio O. Conte Decade of the Brain Award from the National Foundation for Brain Research and the 1997 Ho-Am Prize in Medical Science from the Samsung Foundation.

Choi previously has served as program committee chair, councilor and treasurer of the Society for Neuroscience. He now chairs the U.S. Committee to the International Brain Research Organization. He also sits on the scientific advisory boards of the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg, the Korea Institute for Advanced Study, the Hereditary Disease Foundation, the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study Group, the Parkinson's Study Group and the German Stroke Research Consortium. He is a member of the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council of the National Institutes of Health and founding co-editor of the journal Neurobiology of Disease.