John K. Fink

John Fink is the Guest Editor of this issue of Seminars in Neurology on Genetics. John is Professor of Neurology and Director of the Neurogenetic Disorders Clinic at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. John obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of Cincinnati and his Doctor of Medicine from the Medical College of Ohio. He did his Internship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and his Neurology Residency at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. I first met John when he was a brand new Neurology Resident and I was his Medicine Intern. Dr. Fred Dreifuss was our attending. The best month of my internship was the month I spent with John and Dr. Dreifuss. After John finished his Neurology Residency, he went on to be a Medical Staff Fellow and then a Senior Staff Fellow in the Developmental and Metabolic Neurology Branch of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

John has been the recipient of several prestigious honors and awards including the Derek Denny-Brown Neurological Scholar Award from the American Neurological Association and election to Best Doctors in America. His research on hereditary spastic paraplegia has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health and he has the patent for the gene responsible for autosomal-dominant hereditary spastic paraplegia linked to the SPG3- locus on chromosome 14q11-21. This summer he chaired a Symposium on Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia and Primary Lateral Sclerosis at the International Congress on Motor Neuron Disorders in Istanbul, Turkey. John has mentored several Undergraduates, Medical students, Neurology Residents, Medical Genetic Residents, and Postdoctoral Fellows. John has published 77 manuscripts in peer-reviewed publications and written a book entitled Questions, Answers and the Mystery of the Blue Green Stone.

I have incredible memories of John from our days in Charlottesville. He is one of the smartest, funniest, kindest people I know. I so very much enjoyed the trips I made with him and Drs. Dreifuss and Miller to the Clinics in Southwest Virginia. John played the keyboard when Bob and I got married in the Chapel in the Pines. I remember he wanted me to step in rhythm to the music, but I was just hoping to get down the aisle before Bob changed his mind. John is a big part of the fond memories I have of our days in Charlottesville. It is one of the great joys of life to have known and admired someone early in their career and to see the incredible contributions that they have made in the years since then.