Michael R. Sperling, MD was selected as the 2018 awardee of the J. Kiffin Penry Award, which was presented at American Epilepsy Society's recent meeting in New Orleans. AES is a medical and scientific society with 4,400 members.
This award, originally funded by Abbott Laboratories and supported now by the AES J. Kiffin Penry Fund, was established in 1997 in honor of Dr. Penry's lifelong focus on and genuine concern for epilepsy patients. It recognizes individuals whose work has had a major impact on patient care and improved the quality of life for persons with epilepsy. The award includes a $3,000 honorarium.
Michael Sperling, MD, is Baldwin Keyes Professor of Neurology and Vice Chair for Research at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University.
Dr. Sperling is an internationally known clinician-scientist in the field of epilepsy, known particularly for his work in the field of epilepsy surgery and electrophysiology. He founded and developed the Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, which is devoted to clinical care, research, and education in epilepsy. The center has treated many thousands of people over the years and is especially well known for its surgical program, experimental therapeutics, and care for people with intractable seizures. His approach to epilepsy care integrates clinical practice with research to facilitate advances in therapy, utilizing single institution and multi-institutional clinical research consortia to foster scientific advances.
Over the years, his research interests have included epilepsy surgery outcomes, epilepsy electrophysiology, cognitive electrophysiology, genetics in epilepsy, and experimental therapeutics for epilepsy. He lectures widely in the U.S. and overseas and has organized numerous courses and conferences. Dr. Sperling has trained many clinical and academic epilepsy specialists in the U.S. and abroad. He has published over 370 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and several books. He is co-editor-in-chief of Epilepsia and a former president of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society and the Philadelphia Neurological Society. He is active in the American Epilepsy Society, American Academy of Neurology, and International League Against Epilepsy.
Dr. Sperling completed medical school at Temple University, neurology residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, and trained in epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology at UCLA. He served on the faculty at UCLA and the University of Pennsylvania prior to Thomas Jefferson University.