Dr. Ronald Lazar Discusses the Keys to Optimal Brain Health

Past President Rob Couch and Rotarian Chris Brown with Dr. Lazar

This week the Rotary Club of Birmingham welcomed guest speaker Dr. Ronald Lazar, Director of the UAB McKnight Brain Institute. He shared the keys to optimal brain health throughout one’s life, backed by extensive research.

About Dr. Ronald Lazar
Ronald M. Lazar, PhD, holds the Evelyn F. McKnight Chair and is Professor of Neurology and Neurobiology in the Department of Neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).  He is also the Director of the UAB McKnight Brain Institute and the Director of the Neuropsychology Division.  A graduate from New York University with a prize in Psychology and a PhD graduate in Psychology from Northeastern University, he completed post-doctoral training at Georgetown University and the Eunice Shriver Center in Massachusetts, before being awarded an Andrew W. Fellowship to study the neuropsychology of cancer at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.  Later, he became Professor of Neuropsychology in Neurology and Neurological Surgery in the Stroke Service at the Columbia University Medical Center, and Director of the Richard & Jenny Levine Cerebral Localization Laboratory at the New York Neurological Institute.  In June 2017, he began at UAB.

Dr. Lazar is a Principal Investigator on several grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, with other NIH grants funded by five other NIH Institutes. His publications have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Circulation, Brain, Neurology, Lancet Neurology, JAMA Neurology, JAMA Internal Medicine, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, among others.  He has served as a chartered member of NIH study section and FDA advisory panels.  He was Editor-in-Chief of Neuropsychology Review.  The 2nd Edition of his book, Neurovascular Neuropsychology (Springer), was published in 2020. He directs the Neuropsychology Clinic and sees patients with cognitive disorders arising largely from cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease.  He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, and the American Academy of Neurology.  He has been listed in Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare.