Shlomo Shinnar, MD, Ph.D., has been elected President of the American Epilepsy Society (AES), a medical and scientific society with 4,000 members. Dr. Shinnar's term started at the end of the society's annual meeting, December 1-5, in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Shinnar is a Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics, and Epidemiology and Population Health as well as the Hyman Climenko Professor of Neuroscience Research and the Director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Management Center at the Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His interests include management of epilepsy, clinical trials and long-term outcomes of childhood seizures. He is the currently the principal investigator of the FEBSTAT study as well as co-director of the Einstein NeuroNEXT Center of Excellence for Clinical Trials in Neurology. He is also on the executive committee of the NINDS-funded Established Study Epilepticus Treatment Trial (ESETT).
An AES member for more than 30 years, Dr. Shinnar serves on the AES Board of Directors and previously chaired the society's Guidelines Committee and Awards Committee. He is past chair of the American Academy of Neurology's Epilepsy Section. He is a recipient of the AES Research Recognition Award, the Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy's Epilepsy Research Leadership Award, and a Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke. He is the senior editor of Childhood Seizures and co-editor of Febrile Seizures. He has published more than 200 original papers and 125 reviews and book chapters.
Dr. Shinnar earned his medical degree and his Ph.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed his pediatric and neurology residencies at Johns Hopkins.
Dr. Shinnar lives in New Rochelle, N.Y., together with his wife Ruth, a clinical nurse specialist who is also a long-standing active member of the society. Between them, they have 7 children and 11 grandchildren.