The University of Alabama at Birmingham has announced that Dr. Ronald M. Lazar will serve as the Director of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute in the School of Medicine and will hold the Evelyn F. McKnight Endowed Chair for Learning and Memory in Aging in the Department of Neurology.
Lazar previously served as a professor of neuropsychology and Director of the Richard & Jenny Levine Cerebral Localization Laboratory at Columbia University Medical Center.
The McKnight Institute at UAB is one of four McKnight Brain Institutes in the nation. It currently has 30 investigators, but one of Lazar’s intentions for the Institute is to expand the faculty base through support of pilot research projects, educational symposia and seminars, attendance at conferences, and collaborations with investigators at other institutions. He is also going to work to recruit new investigators to UAB.
“The McKnight Brain Institute represents a unified scientific and clinical focus on aging-related memory dysfunction, and also houses a core of investigators of the absolute highest quality,” Lazar said. “This provides the initiative and momentum for the continued development of the McKnight Brain Institute as a pre-eminent locale for aging-related memory research in the United States. We are grateful to the McKnight Brain Research Foundation for making this endeavor possible.”
“What drew me to UAB was the collaborative spirit that permeates this university,” Lazar said. “There is widespread understanding here that research is best done with contributions from many individuals who provide different perspectives. Employing multiple investigators from diverse disciplines is how we will move this field forward.”
Photo: Neurology. Digital Image. Harvard Medical School. Web. 7 July 2017. <harvard.edu>
https://www.uab.edu/medicine/news/latest/item/1578-lazar-takes-reins-of-mcknight-institute-at-uab