ORLANDO, Fla. ― Jack M. Parent, M.D., has been elected second vice president of the American Epilepsy Society (AES), which is dedicated to advancing research and education for preventing, treating and curing epilepsy. Dr. Parent’s term will begin at the end of the Society’s 2023 Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla., Dec. 1-5, 2023. He will serve three years in AES’ presidential line and begin his term as president in 2026.
Dr. Parent is a neurologist, epileptologist, and neuroscientist with expertise in stem cell biology, adult neurogenesis, and human pluripotent stem cell and rodent models of epilepsy. At the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, he is the William J. Herdman Professor of Neurology and co-division chief of epilepsy, co-directing the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program. He also directs the Human Stem Cell and Gene Editing Core. An internationally recognized research leader in the fields of neural stem cell biology, regeneration after brain injury, and epilepsy, Dr. Parent established the Neurodevelopment and Regeneration Laboratory at the University of Michigan in 2000.
Dr. Parent earned a bachelor’s degree, with distinction, in human biology from Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and his medical degree from the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. He completed a medical internship and neurology residency at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) where he was selected chief resident. He stayed at UCSF for clinical fellowship training in epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology and postdoctoral training in neuroscience research.
In his work and as a volunteer, Dr. Parent has demonstrated he shares and exemplifies AES’ core values. A dedicated member of AES for almost 30 years, he has steadfastly served the Society in leadership positions as a member of the board of directors, co-chair of the Research and Recognition Awards Committee, chief editor of Epilepsy Currents, and as a member of numerous committees including Basic Sciences, Budget & Audit, Governance, Investigators Workshop, and Epilepsy Research Benchmarks Stewards.
He has received many awards for his research including the prestigious AES Basic Science Research Award, an AES Junior Investigator Award, the Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholars in Aging Award, the American Academy of Neurology Dreifuss-Penry Epilepsy Award, and the American Neurological Association Grass Foundation Award in Neuroscience.