Roos named Chairman of Neurology

Raymond Roos, a nationally recognized researcher and leading clinician in neurodegenerative disorders, particularly amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and multiple sclerosis, has been appointed Chairman of Neurology. He has been Professor in Neurology since 1976.

Roos succeeds neuroimmunology specialist Barry Arnason, the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Professor in Neurology, who stepped down earlier this year after serving for 20 years as department chairman.

"I am delighted to announce Raymond Roos' appointment as chairman of the Department of Neurology," said Glenn Steele, Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs. "Ray has been a distinguished member of the faculty for 20 years. During that time he has established a national and international scientific reputation for basic and clinical research while serving as a thoughtful and skilled physician. I look forward to working with him to build the department into a major component of our Center for Behavioral and Neurosciences."

An authority on the relationship between viral infection and neurological disease and on the use of viruses for gene therapy involving the central nervous system, Roos has edited one book and authored or co-authored more than 100 original research articles in peer-reviewed journals, nearly 50 book chapters and more than 150 abstracts or meeting presentations on his research. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Neuroimmunology and the Journal of NeuroVirology, on the scientific review committee of the ALS Association, on the medical advisory board of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and as a member of a National Institutes of Health study section.

He served as chairman from 1995 to 1996 of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee of the Food and Drug Administration. He also directs a nationally recognized ALS clinic at the Hospitals, one of only eight such clinics designated by the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Roos received his A.B. from Columbia University in 1964 and his M.D. from the SUNY Downstate Medical Center in 1968. He was a fellow at the National Institutes of Health, a resident and fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and spent four months as a medical researcher on a National Science Foundation expedition to the Solomon Islands. He taught at Johns Hopkins until he joined the faculty at Chicago. He has been a visiting scientist at the University of Utah Medical Center and the University of California-Irvine Medical Center.